HELENA, Montana (AP) — In Tuesday’s primary election, Montana voters will choose a Republican challenger to three-term Democratic Sen. Jon Tester and candidates for a vacant U.S. House seat left open by the loss of conservative Rep. Matt Rosendale.
Republicans have dominated recent elections in Montana, making Tester increasingly vulnerable. They only need to gain a few seats in November to take control of the U.S. Senate.
For the primary, first-time candidate and former Navy SEAL Tim Sheehy is the favorite of the Republican Party establishment, which includes former President Donald Trump and Montana Governor Greg Gianforte.
The Belgrade businessman has poured more than $2 million of his own money into the campaign and is backed by major GOP donors. He has two lesser-known opponents.
On the Democratic side, Tester’s only opponent in the primaries has not reported raising or spending any campaign money.
Tester and Sheehy’s campaigns are already engaged in a mutual advertising offensive on the radio, and this is expected to intensify towards November.
Tester, a former state Senate president who is considered a moderate in Washington, emphasized his work for veterans and his roots as a third-generation farmer in central Montana. He also played on concerns that wealthy outsiders like Sheehy, who came to the state in 2014, are buying up properties and driving up home prices and taxes.
Sheehy has sought to pin public discontent over President Joe Biden’s efforts to curb illegal immigration at the southern border on Tester. And he is appealing to supporters of Trump, who won Montana by 16 percentage points in 2020, by claiming in a social media post on Monday, without providing details, that Tester supported the former president’s conviction last week in a New York hush-money case.
Tester won his three previous Senate elections by narrow margins.
Seven Republicans are vying for the vacant seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in solidly Republican, predominantly rural eastern Montana.
Candidates include former six-term U.S. Representative Denny Rehberg, State Auditor Troy Downing and State Secretary of Education Elsie Arntzen.
Rehberg came out of retirement and entered the race delayed after Rosendale launched a short-lived campaign for the U.S. Senate.
Downing was endorsed by Trump on Monday, raising more money than the other primary candidates and boasting of his experience as an accountant and in running private sector companies.
Arntzen is one of the most conservative candidates and is strongly committed to cultural issues, such as her opposition to transgender girls participating in girls’ sports competitions.
Four candidates are vying for the Democratic nomination in this district. The winner will have little chance in November.
The state’s western constituency, which includes the cities of Bozeman, Missoula and Butte, is likely to see more competition in the general election.
Incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Ryan Zinke, who served as Trump’s secretary of state, is being challenged by Mary Todd from the party’s right wing. Zinke narrowly won his 2022 primary.
Democrat and environmental advocate Monica Tranel, who lost to Zinke by 3 percentage points in 2022, is running unopposed in the primary election in the western House district.
Gianforte is seeking a second term alongside Lieutenant Governor Kristen Juras, but has faced criticism for sharply increasing property taxes as property values rose. With a historic budget surplus following federal stimulus spending due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the state paid off its debt, lowered the top tax rate and approved one-time refunds of up to $1,250 for individual income taxpayers.
Gianforte and Juras are challenged from the right by Rep. Tanner Smith, who represents part of Flathead County. His running mate, Randy Pinocci, is a public service commissioner from the Great Falls area.
Former firearms manager Ryan Busse of Kalispell is running in the Democratic primary for governor along with attorney Raph Graybill. Helena attorney Jim Hunt is also running for the gubernatorial nomination along with his running mate Jerry Driscoll.
The polling stations close at 8 p.m. on Tuesday. Many voters have already cast their votes by mail.
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Brown reported from Billings, Montana.
