Activism and politics Kidder was a longtime supporter of the U.S. Democratic party and voiced her support for liberal causes throughout her career. She actively supported Jesse Jackson's bid for the Democratic nomination in the 1984 United States presidential election. In the early 1990s, during the first Gulf War, Kidder was branded a "Baghdad Betty" and subjected to abuse for her remarks questioning the war. In a piece called "Confessions of 'Baghdad Betty'", styled as a letter to her mother and printed in The Nation, Kidder responded by explaining and defending her statements. In 2008, Kidder was a volunteer at the Barack Obama campaign headquarters in Livingston, Montana. As of November 2009, Kidder was the Montana State Coordinator for Progressive Democrats of America. The organization's website carried her article "Ax Max", in which she criticized Max Baucus, Montana's Democratic senator. She also contributed articles to CounterPunch, a left-wing magazine, beginning in 2009. On August 22, 2015, she was named the host of a dinner event by the Yellowstone County Democrats in Billings, Montana, called "Billings for Bernie" in support of Bernie Sanders' presidential primary bid. In a CounterPunch article expressing her reaction to the 2016 Democratic National Convention, she wrote, "I am not an American tonight... I reject the words I voiced at my citizenship ceremony." In addition to her campaigning in the United States, Kidder expressed support for liberal causes in Canada. In 2011, she supported her brother, John Kidder, in British Columbia, who was running to be a member of Canada's Parliament for the Liberal Party: Throughout her life, Kidder was also invested in efforts protesting for environmental and anti-nuclear causes. On August 23, 2011, Kidder, Tantoo Cardinal, and dozens of others were arrested while protesting in Washington, D.C., against the proposed extension of the Keystone Pipeline. In 2012, she appeared in a video for Stop the Frack Attack, an environmental organization working toward regulating hydraulic fracturing ("fracking") practices. When discussing sustainable energy, Kidder said: "The first thing people have to start facing, contrary to the advertising fed to us by oil and gas companies, is that environmentalism and economic stability go hand-in-hand on any long term basis." Kidder spent the winter of 2016–2017 residing in a tent at the Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota, protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline. In addition to environmental causes, Kidder was a vocal supporter of LGBT rights, and in 2003 hosted