BIGFORK, Mont. — After 17 years in the U.S. Senate, Democrat Jon Tester is a popular product in Montana — a plain-spoken grain farmer with a flattop and a thoroughly cultivated trackrecord as a moderate.
The 67-year-old legislator smiled and chuckled his method through the crowd at a Veterans Day occasion in Bigfork, a little town on Flathead Lake where the population has rose in current years. He talked with veterans who supported him and some who didn’t, then stood behind a lectern in the Bigfork High School gym to promote his mostsignificant current achievement: broadened federal health care for millions of veterans exposed to hazardous smoke at military “burn pits.”
Tester has endured 3 close elections and a altered nationwide political landscape to emerge as the only Democrat still holding high workplace in Montana. The 2024 election brings perhaps his stiffest difficulty yet: Republicans, simply 2 seats brief of Senate control, are anticipated to invest 10s of millions on attack advertisements painting him as a Washington expert polluted by lobbyist money.
Ousting Tester likewise would cement a Republican lock on a state that voted extremely for Republican Donald Trump in the 2020 governmental election.
Tester wentinto the Senate after selling Montana citizens on his credibility, and the previous high school band instructor’s message hasn’t altered much. He still socializes conveniently with union members, ranchers and veterans, has a record of working on their behalf, and states his heart stays securely in his sparsely inhabited state, a huge stretch that covers from the dry Great Plains to the lavish forests of the Pacific Northwest.
Still, credibility is moredifficult to sell when you’ve endedupbeing a leading Washington charityevent. He’s taken in practically $20 million for next year’s election, ranking Tester 6th amongst Senate prospects acrossthecountry, according to Federal Election Commission information through September. Tester firmlyinsisted that the cash hasn’t altered him, that he doesn’t even understand where it all comes from.
“I can’t inform you who’s contributing to me. Even from within the state of Montana, I can’t inform you who contributes to me since I puton’t appearance at that list,” he stated in an interview. “It’s not crucial. I trust that those individuals think in me and I’m going to continue to do the verysame task.”
His project reports expose plentiful lobbyist money, the kind that hardlyever comes from individuals who wear’t desire something, and yet the legislator’s journey from outsider to fundraising leviathan has mostly been one of requirement. With West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin’s choice versus lookingfor another term, Tester hasactually endedupbeing a leading target for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and his huge fundraising operation.
McConnell’s goals to onceagain be bulk leader might get bogged down if a main battle establishes inbetween his greasy prospect in Montana, U.S. Navy SEAL Tim Sheehy, and U.S. Rep. Matt Rosendale, one of the reactionary House members who ousted fellow Republican Kevin McCarthy of California as House speaker. Dozens of state legislators have urged Rosendale to gointo. He ran versus Tester in 2018 and lost regardlessof a big push from then-President Trump.
Republican unity next November would narrow Tester’s course to triumph, particularly if he’s branded as a Washington expert. As he’s acquired seniority and impact — and as election costs acrossthecountry