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Jon Tester loses to Tim Sheehy in Montana Senate race

Jon Tester loses to Tim Sheehy in Montana Senate race

Seven-fingered Montana dirt farmer Jon Tester's Senate career ended Tuesday after a costly battle with former Navy Seal and questionably wounded Tim Sheehy, a Montana businessman. The victory declared Wednesday morning is part of a massive election day for Republicans, with Donald Trump claiming a presidential victory and Republicans taking back control of the Senate.

For three terms, Tester had battled headwinds from the Republican takeover of Montana, where Donald Trump won by 16 points in 2020. All six of the state's major officeholders are Republicans, and the GOP has solid majorities in the state legislature. Tester made a point of distancing himself from the national party by not formally endorsing Kamala Harris or attending the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. He declined most interviews with national reporters and instead focused on promoting federal money and projects he had brought back to the Big Sky State, particularly his work on behalf of farmers and veterans.

That didn't inoculate Tester from Republican attacks. He was running not only against Sheehy, but also against a vengeful Trump, who held a rally in Montana — not a swing state — in August where he mocked Tester's weight and handed the microphone to Congressman Ronny Jackson. Tester, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, had blocked Jackson's nomination as Veterans Affairs secretary because of credible allegations of misconduct – including drunkenness and the generous distribution of prescription drugs to Jackson's colleagues while he served as Trump's presidential physician. Perhaps seeking revenge, he declared at a rally in Bozeman that Tester was “a sleazy, disgusting swamp politician” and declared so angrily that he wanted revenge.

The whole mudslinging conveniently diverted the attention of Sheehy, the longtime CEO of Bridger Aerospace, an aerial firefighting company. Sheehy, a generally good-looking first-time candidate, had been recruited by the Republican Senate Campaign Committee, which viewed defeating Tester as key to securing the Republican majority in the Senate. Sheehy, a Minnesota native and prep school graduate, looked ready to play the role, but he rarely made himself available to the press or announced his public schedule. His campaign signs in Montana read “American Warrior,” but his introduction to the rest of America came first through a series of scathing articles The Washington Post and then in The New York Timesand questions his story about how Sheehy suffered a gunshot wound to the arm.

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The facts indicate that Sheehy was injured by the accidental discharge of his pistol in Glacier National Park. However, Sheehy claimed he lied about this and that he was injured in a friendly fire incident while serving in Afghanistan and did not report it at the time because he feared his fellow soldiers would be punished. Recently, Sheehy's story changed again and he told podcaster Megyn Kelly a different account, suggesting that he may have been wounded by an Afghan soldier.

In the Plains states, Democrats were largely wiped out as the party relied more on coastal college graduates than on rural non-college whites, but there was hope that the clear-cut tester could buck the trend. (The senator from Big Sandy, Montana, still owns the slaughter machine that took off three of his fingers as a teenager). But the colorful tester couldn't hold back Montana's population surge as MAGA refugees from the West Coast moved to the Big Sky country in droves over the past decade. Montana has long been considered the most important seat in determining control of the Senate and money has been spent accordingly, with spending on the two campaigns topping $250 million.

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