Republican Tim Sheehy defeats Jon Tester to win the Montana US Senate seat

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) – Republican Tim Sheehy bolstered the GOP’s Senate majority with a victory over three-term Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Tester in a nationally important contest that featured a record outpouring of spending by the two sides.

Sheehy, a former US Navy SEAL, aligned his campaign closely with Donald Trump and leading conservatives while painting Tester as a corrupt Washington insider. The Republican also promised to address the crisis at the southern border and curb government regulation.

Democrats entered Tuesday’s election with a narrow two-seat majority in the Senate. Tester — a moderate and the chamber’s only working farmer — was considered one of the most vulnerable Democrats in the statewide poll.

Republicans took control of the Senate Tuesday night with wins at Ohio and West Virginia.

Sheehy said in a statement that he has served the country since he was 18 and was honored to continue his service in the Senate.

“Since day one, we’ve been running a grassroots campaign, talking directly to Montanans about how to make Montana affordable again, make America strong again, and bring back common sense to Montana, which means a secure border, safe streets, cheap gas, police are good, criminals are bad, boys are boys and girls are girls,” he said.

Sheehy, 38, sought to damage Tester’s reputation for authenticity by highlighting more than $500,000 that lobbyists and their families donated to the lawmaker during the last election cycle.

The tactic mirrored Tester’s own campaign in 2006, when he beat a three-term Republican incumbent who was caught up in a lobbying scandal in Washington, DC.

Sheehy touted his military service and business experience, pushing past questions raised over a gunshot wound he admitted to lying about. He also sought to highlight his success in the private sector as the founder of an aerial firefighting company – even as the company’s share price fell.

Sheehy pitched the race as one of national importance to Republicans eager to undo four years of Democratic rule in the Senate and the White House.

Tester was the last member of his party to hold statewide office in Montana and the last Democratic senator from the five-state Northern Plains region. When he first took office in 2006, Democrats held six of the region’s 10 Senate seats.

Hoping to resist the conservative tide sweeping the region, Tester, 68, appealed to moderate Republicans and independents. That included pairing his Senate campaign with a ballot proposal enshrining abortion rights in the state constitution — along with frequent reminders to voters that he’s a working farmer who has worked hard for them, too.

He also tried to distance himself from Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, hoping to appeal to moderate Republicans and independent voters.

About 4 in 10 voters said Senate control was the most important factor in deciding how to vote in Montana’s Senate race, according to AP VoteCast, a comprehensive survey of more than 1,100 voters in the state.

Overall, nearly 6 in 10 Montana voters said the future of democracy was the most important factor in casting their vote. About a third said the high cost of groceries, gas and other goods was the most important factor, and about 3 in 10 voters said the future of free speech in the United States.

About a quarter of voters said abortion policy was the most important factor in casting their vote in the general election.

Tester’s narrow 2006 victory over a three-term Republican incumbent marked a high point for Montana Democrats. It came in a midterm election and amid growing dissatisfaction with the Bush administration’s war in Iraq.

More than $300 million was spent in this year’s competition, much of it from outside groups with shadowy donors. The spending equated to about $500 for each active voter — a record voter base.

Democrats had a significant cash advantage, and in the final days of the race, Tester’s campaign filled Montana newspapers and the airwaves with ads reinforcing claims by a former park ranger that Sheehy lied about a gunshot wound in his arm.

Sheehy said 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 was involved in character assassination and other SEALs implicating Sheehy’s integrity, but he released not anyone. confirmation of medical records.

Montana’s political profile has changed dramatically since Tester’s first election. It went from a “purple” state that traditionally sent a mix of Democrats and Republicans to higher office to one where partisan divisions reign and the GOP holds a supermajority in the state legislature.

Tester warned throughout the campaign about “outsiders” such as Sheehy — who came to Montana in 2014 and bought a ranch — driving up housing prices and limiting hunting and fishing access for the public.

Voter Kael Richards, 22, of Bozeman said Montanans typically resent wealthy out-of-state people like Sheehy. But Richards said he was willing to look beyond that factor for the Senate race and was impressed when he learned Sheehy ran an aerial firefighting business.

“Tester’s been around so long, growing up, we’ve known nothing but Tester,” Richards said. “I feel that a change is needed. Our house prices have never been higher. Our land prices have never been higher.”

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Associated Press writer Amy Beth Hanson contributed from Great Falls, Montana.