BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Incumbent, three-term Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Tester of Montana faces perhaps his toughest re-election challenge yet Tuesday as control of the Senate hangs in the balance in a state who has moved sharply to the right since the 68-year-old grain farmer’s term in office has become his first choice.
Republicans are pinning their hopes on Tim Sheehy, a former US Navy SEAL and founder of an aerial firefighting company. Sheehy, 38, received early support from party leaders including former President Donald Trump, paving the political newcomer’s path to victory in the June primary.
It’s the first time Tester’s name will appear on the same ballot as Trump, who won Montana by wide margins in 2016 and 2020.
Long lines were seen outside polling stations in Montana as in-person voting began.
A Sheehy victory would seal the Republican Party’s dominance in the five-state Northern Plains region: Tester took office as one of six Democratic senators in the largely rural part of the American heartland, which also includes Wyoming, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota belong. He’s the only one now.
The lawmaker is also the only remaining Democrat holding statewide office in Montana.
The candidates and their allies broke political spending records, bombarding voters with nearly $300 million in advertising on television, on the radio, on their phones and in their mailboxes. The total spending for each busy registered voter in Montana is expected to be about $500.
“This is the toughest race since Tester came along,” said political analyst Jeremy Johnson, “and Tim Sheehy is a really impressive candidate.”
In the final days of the race, Tester’s campaign flooded Montana newspapers and broadcast stations with ads amplifying a former park ranger’s claims that Sheehy lied about a gunshot wound in his arm.
Sheehy said during an interview with conservative pundit Megyn Kelly that the wound came from combat in Afghanistan and was not accidentally self-inflicted, as he told the Ranger in 2015. The Republican said Tester’s campaign committed character assassination and other SEALs vouched for Sheehy’s integrity, but he has not released any corroborating medical records.
Montana’s political profile has changed dramatically since Tester was first elected in 2006. It has evolved from a “purple” state that traditionally sent a mix of Democrats and Republicans to higher office to one where partisan divisions prevail and the GOP enjoys a supermajority in the state legislature.
Tester warned throughout the campaign about “outsiders” like Sheehy — who came to Montana in 2014 and bought a ranch — who were driving up real estate prices and limiting access to hunting and fishing for the general public
“We see a lot of people coming into our state, rich people who want to try to buy our state and turn it into something it’s not,” Tester said.
Tester, chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, has built a reputation as a moderate during his 18 years in office. He has introduced legislation such as expanding health care for veterans and providing broadband to rural areas, while sometimes opposing Democratic proposals to tighten rules for the energy industry.
But Tester also repeatedly voted with the Democrats on essential legislation, which meant he could no longer keep up with Montana’s hardened conservatism.
Sheehy sought to tarnish the lawmaker’s reputation for authenticity by highlighting more than $500,000 that lobbyists and their families donated to Tester this election cycle. Republicans suspected the Democrat was receiving campaign contributions from industries that needed his vote after lawmakers were grilled over donations from bank executives hit by a 2018 regulatory rollback and Lockheed Martin employees who benefited from a 2021 defense bill. was subjected to careful scrutiny.
There was no evidence of any wrongdoing by Tester. But Sheehy’s tactics mirrored Tester’s own 2006 campaign, when he defeated a three-term Republican incumbent caught up in a lobbying scandal in Washington, D.C.
Sheehy viewed the Montana race in broad, national terms, often blaming Tester for the Biden-Harris administration’s perceived failings.
“We have an economy that is in ruins. There are foreign policy crises all over the world that we cannot even hope to address immediately. It’s time for a leadership change,” Sheehy said.
The Tester campaign’s response was to remind voters of his longstanding advocacy in Congress for Montana’s economically essential agricultural industry. And Democrats shared numerous anecdotes in which they said Tester helped individual voters, such as securing Social Security benefits for the elderly.
Tester also tied his campaign to efforts to pass a ballot initiative that would enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution. It was part of an attempt to woo the independents and moderate Republicans whose support has kept Tester in office even as the state trended to the right.
Sheehy praised his military service and business experience, drawing parallels between his recent arrival in Montana and the early 20th century settlers who were resented by those who had arrived even earlier.
“The history of the American West is one of newcomers. You know, it excels at expansion,” Sheehy said.
Sheehy brushed off questions about his work as a lobbyist and derogatory comments he made to supporters about Native Americans. And he insisted on his success in the private sector even as his company’s stock price collapsed – a decline that his campaign blamed in part on “smears” from Democrats.
His campaign got a boost this summer from a rally with Trump in Bozeman, Montana. The rapidly growing university town could be crucial to which side wins.
Trump – who holds a personal grudge over Tester derailing Trump’s 2018 Veterans Affairs nomination – mocked Tester’s physical appearance during the event.
