In the first part of this series, we looked at what Montana actually did.
The state expanded access to experimental medicine beyond terminally ill patients and then created licensed Experimental Treatment Centers where qualifying treatments that have completed Phase I testing may be offered to paying patients.
Now comes the next question.
Where did this idea come from, and who helped sell it to Montana lawmakers?
The answer leads well beyond Montana.
The Alliance for Longevity Initiatives
One of the most important organizations behind Montana’s push is the Alliance for Longevity Initiatives, commonly called A4LI.
A4LI is not simply a medical research charity.
It is a 501(c)(4) advocacy organization built specifically to influence public policy surrounding longevity science and biotechnology.
Its own materials say it supported both of Montana’s major Right to Try changes, SB 422 and SB 535.
Its founder, Dylan Livingston, now openly lists helping develop and pass the two Montana laws among his accomplishments.
A4LI also promotes federal lobbying, meetings with lawmakers and policies aimed at changing the regulatory environment surrounding longevity medicine.
In other words, Montana was not simply noticed after it changed its laws.
The longevity movement helped change them.
Dylan Livingston
Livingston’s background is worth understanding because he did not come into this primarily through medicine.
He came through politics.
A4LI says Livingston worked on political campaigns before founding the organization, including serving as a field organizer for Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign in Pennsylvania.
Livingston has described getting the idea for a longevity political organization in 2021 after working on campaigns.
He founded A4LI shortly afterward and began building political relationships around the emerging longevity biotechnology industry.
Today his organization works directly with scientists, biotechnology executives, investors and policymakers.
A4LI helped establish a bipartisan Longevity Science Caucus in Congress and says it facilitated more than 70 meetings between advocates and members of Congress during 2025.
Livingston has also established a political action effort focused specifically on supporting politicians favorable to longevity policy.
The Alliance for Longevity Initiatives Political Action Committee describes its purpose as raising money from members and contributing to politicians who support longevity bioscience and longevity politics.
Public records available through ProPublica currently show that the PAC had not electronically reported individual contributions or expenditures in the data displayed there.
That means we should not claim money from that PAC went to Montana politicians unless records establish that it did.
But A4LI Has Money
A4LI’s federal nonprofit filings show a rapidly growing advocacy organization.
For the fiscal year ending in June 2025, A4LI reported approximately:
$915,062 in revenue.
Of that, approximately:
$852,093 came from contributions.
That was more than 93 percent of its revenue.
The organization reported about $688,310 in expenses and nearly $960,000 in net assets.
Dylan Livingston was listed as president with compensation of $172,900 for that filing period.
Earlier filings show substantial contribution-supported revenue as well.
For the fiscal year ending May 2023, A4LI reported about $625,459 in revenue, with approximately $621,899 coming from contributions.
That is important.
But there is something those public numbers do not tell us.
Who supplied all of those contributions?
As a 501(c)(4), A4LI is not required to publicly identify all of its donors in the way a candidate campaign must identify campaign contributors.
So we currently know how much contribution revenue came into the organization.
We do not have a complete public list showing who supplied every dollar.
That makes the organization’s publicly identified sponsors, industry relationships and financial connections particularly important to examine.
The Industry Around A4LI
A4LI does not hide its relationship with the longevity investment and biotechnology world.
Its events and materials feature executives, investors and companies developing longevity technologies.
Among the prominent companies appearing in its ecosystem is Retro Biosciences.
Retro’s CEO, Joe Betts-LaCroix, and its head of regulatory affairs, Rob Kalesnik-Orszulak, have participated in A4LI programming.
Retro Biosciences is itself backed by enormous Silicon Valley capital. Sam Altman reportedly invested approximately $180 million in the company.
A4LI also hosts an investor summit specifically designed to connect longevity investors with biotechnology companies.
Its sponsorship program sells varying levels of organizational access and participation, including access to policy events and government-affairs activity.
None of that proves that a particular company purchased Montana legislation.
There is currently no evidence I have found establishing that Retro Biosciences, Sam Altman or another named longevity company paid Sen. Ken Bogner to pass SB 535.
That distinction matters.
But it is equally misleading to pretend this legislation emerged in an economic vacuum.
There is an organized, increasingly well-funded national industry seeking faster access to experimental therapies and a different regulatory pathway for bringing those therapies to patients.
And Montana became one of its most important legislative victories.
Then There Is Jesse Luther
If Dylan Livingston represents the national longevity movement coming into Montana, Jesse Luther represents something very different.
He knows Helena.
Luther appeared before the Montana Senate Public Health Committee supporting SB 535 on behalf of the Alliance for Longevity Initiatives.
During that hearing, he explained provisions of the bill and argued that medical professionals wanted greater regulatory clarity before using Montana’s expanded Right to Try system.
But SB 535 was hardly Luther’s first trip through the Montana Capitol.
Montana legislative records show Jesse Luther lobbying or appearing for a remarkably wide range of interests over many years.
In 2009, legislative minutes identify him representing the Montana Contractors Association.
In 2011, he appeared representing the Association of Montana Troopers.
Other legislative records identify him in connection with the Consumer Data Industry Association.
In 2019, testimony referenced Jesse Luther representing the Motion Picture Association of America.
More recently, he has represented gambling and hospitality interests.
And in 2025, Montana legislative records identify him as a partner with the Taylor Luther Group appearing on behalf of interests including:
Talen Energy Montana
and
Sabey Data Centers.
That last one deserves attention for a completely different reason.
Montana is presently wrestling with enormous questions surrounding data centers, electricity demand, water, development and outside industrial investment.
The same professional lobbyist who represented A4LI in explaining Montana’s experimental-treatment legislation has also represented major energy and data-center interests before Montana government.
That does not establish wrongdoing.
Professional lobbyists routinely represent unrelated clients.
But Montanans should understand who is sitting at the table when significant legislation is written, explained and moved through the Capitol.
Two Very Different Political Operators
Livingston and Luther appear to fill very different roles.
Livingston helped build the movement.
Luther knows the machinery.
Livingston founded an organization dedicated specifically to changing longevity policy, built relationships with biotech companies and investors, developed congressional relationships and helped make Montana a national test case.
Luther is a seasoned Montana governmental-affairs professional with years of experience representing industries and organizations before Montana lawmakers.
Put those together and you have something much more sophisticated than a few patients asking legislators for medical freedom.
You have:
A national policy organization.
An emerging multibillion-dollar longevity industry.
Biotechnology investors.
Professional Montana lobbying experience.
Lawmakers interested in making Montana attractive to investment.
And legislation capable of creating an entirely new commercial medical market.
That does not make the legislation corrupt.
It does mean the public should know who designed it.
We Still Need to Follow the Montana Money
This investigation is not finished.
The next records that need to be examined are Montana Commissioner of Political Practices filings.
Not just contributions to Sen. Ken Bogner.
Every relevant legislator.
The members of Senate Public Health.
The members of House Human Services.
Political committees.
Individual executives affiliated with longevity businesses.
Registered lobbying principals.
Lobbyist compensation.
Independent expenditures.
A4LI officials.
Company founders.
Venture capital investors.
And anyone financially connected with companies now preparing to operate under Montana’s new law.
Montana’s Commissioner of Political Practices maintains separate systems for campaign finance and lobbying disclosure.
Those records matter because corporate influence does not always arrive as a check with a company’s name printed across the top.
It can travel through executives, political committees, lobbying contracts, trade associations, advocacy organizations and individual contributions.
At this point, I have not found evidence proving that a Montana legislator received a contribution in exchange for supporting SB 535.
That needs to be stated plainly.
But absence of proof of a payoff is not the end of a legitimate investigation into influence.
There is already enough verified information to ask a much simpler question:
Why did a national longevity lobbying organization decide Montana was the place to build this system?
Dylan Livingston himself now describes Montana’s SB 422 and SB 535 as significant achievements of his advocacy work.
His own consulting business says he played a central role in developing and successfully passing both Montana laws.
His organization raises hundreds of thousands of dollars from contributions.
Its network includes biotechnology executives, longevity investors and companies that stand to benefit from faster paths between experimental development and paying patients.
And a veteran Montana lobbyist represented that organization before our Legislature.
Those aren’t allegations.
Those are pieces of the public record.
Montanans are entitled to put them together.
Because when an outside industry helps write the rules under which that same industry may eventually operate and make money in Montana, asking who wrote the law, who lobbied for it, who financed the advocates and who stands to profit is not anti-science.
It is oversight.
And that is exactly what citizens are supposed to do.
Sources
A4LI’s own advocacy materials identify Dylan Livingston as founder and CEO, describe his prior work on Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign, and credit A4LI with supporting Montana SB 422 and SB 535 and conducting extensive congressional advocacy.
Livingston’s own longevity consulting company states that he played a central role in the development and successful passage of SB 422 and SB 535 and describes his work with companies, investors and government leaders.
A4LI’s nonprofit filings show approximately $915,062 in FY2025 revenue, $852,093 in contributions and $172,900 in compensation for Livingston, along with earlier years of substantial contribution-supported revenue.
The Alliance for Longevity Initiatives Political Action Committee describes its purpose as supporting politicians favorable to longevity bioscience and politics. The available ProPublica record states that it had not electronically reported individual contributions or expenditures in the displayed data.
A4LI publicly markets sponsorships and access to longevity-policy activities and features executives and investors associated with companies including Retro Biosciences.
Washington Post reporting states that A4LI has spent at least $283,000 on federal lobbying since 2022 and describes the organization as playing a key role in Montana’s experimental-treatment legislation.
The Montana Senate SB 535 hearing record identifies Jesse Luther as appearing for A4LI and summarizes his arguments concerning regulatory clarity and implementation.
Official Montana legislative minutes document Jesse Luther’s earlier appearances representing the Montana Contractors Association, the Association of Montana Troopers, the Consumer Data Industry Association and interests associated with the Motion Picture Association.
Montana legislative records from 2025 identify Luther as a partner at Taylor Luther Group appearing on behalf of Talen Energy Montana and Sabey Data Centers, among others.
Montana’s Commissioner of Political Practices is responsible for campaign-finance and lobbying disclosures, which are the appropriate records for the next stage of tracing Montana-specific contributions and lobbying relationships.
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