Jon Tester Loses to Tim Sheehy in Montana Senate Race

The Senate career of seven-fingered Montana farmer Jon Tester ended Tuesday after a costly battle with former Navy Seal and questionably injured Tim Sheehy, a Montana businessman. The victory, which was called Wednesday morning, is part of a massive election day for Republicans, with Donald Trump cruising to a presidential victory and the GOP taking back control of the Senate.

For three terms, Tester had fought the headwinds of the Republican takeover of Montana, which Donald Trump won by 16 points in 2020. All six of the state’s key officials are Republicans, and the GOP has a solid majority in the state legislature. Tester made a point of distancing himself from the national party by not officially endorsing Kamala Harris or attending the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. He declined most interviews with national reporters while concentrating on touting federal dollars and projects he brought back to the Big Sky State, particularly his work on behalf of farmers and veterans.

It did not inoculate Tester from Republican attacks. He met not only Sheehy, but a vengeful Trump, who held an August rally in Montana — not a swing state — where he mocked Tester’s weight and turned the microphone over to Congressman Ronny Jackson. Tester, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, had blocked Jackson’s nomination to become Secretary of Veterans Affairs over credible allegations of wrongdoing — including drunkenness and liberal dispensing of prescription drugs to Jackson’s colleagues while serving as Trump’s presidential physician. A visibly furious Jackson, who may be seeking payback, declared at a Bozeman rally that Tester was “a sleazy, disgusting swamp politician.”

All the mudslinging conveniently drew attention away from Sheehy, the longtime CEO of Bridger Aerospace, an aerial firefighting company. Sheehy, a generic handsome first-time candidate, had been recruited by the Republican Senate Campaign Committee, which saw defeating Tester as key to the GOP gaining the Senate majority. While eyeing the role, Sheehy, a Minnesota native and prep school graduate, rarely held press availability or announced his public schedule. His Montana campaign signs read “American Warrior,” but his introduction to the rest of America came through a series of damning articles, first in Washington Post and then entered New York Timesand questioned his story about how Sheehy received a gunshot wound to his arm.

The facts indicated that Sheehy had injured himself by accidentally discharging his gun while in Glacier National Park. However, Sheehy claimed he had lied about it and he had been wounded in a friendly fire incident while serving in Afghanistan and did not report it at the time because he feared his comrades would be disciplined. Recently, Sheehy’s story changed again, and he told podcaster Megyn Kelly another account suggests he may have been wounded by an Afghan soldier.

Democrats have mostly been wiped out in the Plains states, as the party leaned more on coastal college graduates than non-college rural whites, but there was hope that the commonly-spoken test could buck the trend. (The senator from Big Sandy, Montana, still owns the butcher machine that took three of his fingers as a youth). But the colorful tester couldn’t beat back Montana’s demographic surge as MAGA refugees from the West Coast moved in droves to Big Sky country over the past decade. Montana had long been considered the key seat in determining control of the Senate, and money was spent accordingly, the two campaigns topping out at over $250 million in spending.