With less than two months to go before Election Day, all eyes are not only on the presidential race between Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, but also on the crucial Senate elections across the country that will determine who will control the upper house in 2025 – regardless of which side wins the presidency.
As we previously reported, Republican Senate candidate Dave McCormick is giving Democratic Senator Bob Casey nightmares in Pennsylvania. In addition, there is a mighty possibility that West Virginia will turn red due to Governor Jim Justice’s Senate candidacy and Senator Joe Manchin’s resignation.
But it is precisely in the great state of Montana that the Republicans have their second greatest hope for a decisive seat change (along with West Virginia) thanks to the delicate candidacy of Democratic Senator Jon Tester.
READ MORE–>> Hoo Boy: Big trouble for Jon Tester in Montana
Tester has served in the Senate since 2007 in a state that usually goes red in presidential elections, but is mostly elected and re-elected Democrats to the US Senate (with exceptions).
But Tester is currently in the fight of his political life thanks to Trump-backed Republican Senate candidate Tim Sheehy, a former Navy SEAL and veteran of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. In early September, the race was changed from “undecided” to “leaning Republican,” according to an analysis by the Cook Political Report, which, among other things, took into account a wave of summer poll trends that looked really good for Sheehy.
On Tuesday, Tester’s re-election campaign was marred by even more bad news, from the Montana Supreme Court in a case brought by the state’s Democratic Party. Inclusion whether or not Green Party Senate candidate Robert Barb could remain on the ballot:
The Montana Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a lower court ruling allowing the state’s Green Party Senate candidate to remain on the ballot in November, a setback to Democrats’ efforts to prevent what they say could jeopardize the close race between the incumbent senator and the incumbent senator. Jon Tester (D) and his Republican challenger Tim Sheehy.
The Democratic Party of Montana Lawsuit filed In overdue August, he challenged the nomination of Green Party candidate Robert Barb, who had finished second in the state’s Green Party primary but replaced the candidate with the most votes after the latter dropped out of the race.
[…]
In its ruling Tuesday, the state Supreme Court found that Democrats “failed to demonstrate that the Montana Green Party likely violated its party rules when its state executive committee appointed Barb to fill the vacancy.”
The full judgment can be found here Here.
As RedState documented at the time, an AARP poll conducted in overdue August by a nonpartisan polling firm found Tester trailing Sheehy by eight points in a four-candidate race (including Libertarian and Green Party candidates) and by six points in a two-candidate race.
If the current poll data holds up, the question is not just whether Tester will lose to Sheehy in November, but by what margin.
This is another large event to keep an eye on. As always, stay tuned.
Flashback: Jon Tester’s defense of Joe Biden’s cognitive abilities was not the victory he expected
