HELENA, Mont. — Three-term incumbent Democratic Sen. Jon Tester and Republican newcomer Tim Sheehy cruised to victory in Montana’s primary election Tuesday, setting up a contentious November election that could tip the balance of power in the closely divided U.S. Senate.
Sheehy is a former Navy SEAL backed by former President Donald Trump, Gov. Greg Gianforte and the Republican establishment.
Beyond the race’s national implications, it offers Republicans a chance to complete their lock on higher offices in Montana after years of picking off Democratic elected officials in what was once a more politically diverse state.
A loss by Tester, who has survived three close elections even as the national political landscape shifted, would oust the final Democrat still holding high office in Montana.
Montana voters also were selecting candidates for an open U.S. House seat being vacated by far-right conservative Rep. Matt Rosendale. State Auditor and Insurance Commissioner Troy Downing won the Republican primary, while the Democratic race was too early to call.
Gianforte also easily won his primary as he seeks a second term in the governor’s office.
Donald Trump’s name appeared on the ballot Tuesday for the first time since his conviction on felony crimes, as a handful of states held the last Republican presidential primary contests of 2024.
“America is at a crossroads and we need a new generation of leaders to save our country,” Sheehy said in a statement that repeated all the GOP talking points for the 2024 elections.
The Tester and Sheehy campaigns already have been pounding each other on the airwaves in an advertising blitz that’s expected to intensify as November approaches.
“This race will cost hundreds of millions of dollars, which is insane,” Tester said in an interview on MSNBC. Sheehy said the campaign was “going to be the most expensive race in American history per vote.”
Tester — a former state Senate president who’s considered a moderate in Washington — has emphasized his work for veterans and his roots as a third-generation farmer in central Montana. He’s also played up concerns that wealthy outsiders such as Sheehy are buying up property and driving housing prices and taxes higher.
Sheehy has sought to saddle Tester with public dissatisfaction over President Joe Biden’s struggles to stem illegal immigration on the southern border. And he’s appealing to supporters of Trump, who won Montana by 16 percentage points in 2020, by claiming in a social media post Monday without providing specifics that Tester supported the former president’s conviction last week in a New York hush money case.
In an interview on MSNBC on Tuesday night, Tester said he would run on his record of passing legislation in support of military veterans and working to get rural residents connected to broadband.
“I have been told over and over again that I am one of the most effective senators in the United States Senate and one of the most bipartisan senators,” Tester told Lawrence O’Donnell.
