Montana’s Tight Senate Race Draws National Attention, Money

By Clayton Elmore Community News Service UM School of Journalism On a sunny September afternoon in Butte, Democratic Sen. Jon Tester stood in a small room in a brick building and rallied a group of volunteers by casting his opponent, Republican businessman and former Navy SEAL Tim Sheehy, as a wealthy transplant out of touch with local values.

“He doesn’t know Montana, and that’s the problem,” Tester told the crowd. “He doesn’t know Butte, America, and that’s the problem. He doesn’t know the labor movement started here, and that’s the problem. He doesn’t understand people had to work their butts off to support their families here. That’s the problem.”

For Tester, who is vying for a fourth term in the Senate, the problem may be that the electorate has changed since he was first elected in 2006. Today the average Montanan voter is more partisan, motivated by broader culture wars and national issues like immigration and the economy.

“I used to always call Tester the unicorn candidate,” said Jessi Bennion, a professor of political science at Montana State University.

“He was a farmer. He was a rural Democrat. He was...