The Changing Spirit of Montana; Dirt farmer Jon Tester is the last statewide Democrat. Practically all the Republican

Things are looking pretty downhill for Sen. Tester.
Much longer article-describes lots of people who are running.

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Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) is seen at a parade in Missoula, Montana.







The Changing Spirit of Montana

Dirt farmer Jon Tester is the last statewide Democrat. Practically all the Republican officeholders are out-of-state millionaires. What gives?

by David Dayen October 22, 2024




....................How did Montana turn so rapidly from a ticket-splitting haven to a place that’s one senator in a tractor away from total Republican domination?

“All the [anti-corporate, anti-outsider] streaks you described are still there. But national politics has come in like a gale-force wind,” said Eric Stern, a former senior adviser and campaign manager to former Democratic governors Brian Schweitzer and Steve Bullock. In some sense that gust is literal: an influx of out-of-state residents, sometimes known as the Yellowstone effect, has changed the electorate and made appeals to being a true Montanan harder to pull off.

Tester still feels like he can survive the storm. “I’m good with where we’re at,” he told me from the perch of the tractor. “I think honesty and integrity matters a lot, and if it doesn’t we’re in trouble.”

IN ANY OTHER STATE WITH A TIGHT SENATE ELECTION THIS YEAR, the Tester-Sheehy race would be no contest. Tester is a three-term incumbent who grew up on land his grandfather acquired a century ago; Sheehy got to the state in 2014. Tester has been crisscrossing Montana, using his good-ol’-boy, crossover appeal. Sheehy was not at the homecoming parade in Missoula; a spokesperson for the county Republicans said he had a “conflict.” Others remarked to me that Sheehy does few events, and only in controlled settings.

“I don’t know much about him,” former Republican House Majority Leader Brad Tschida told me while waiting alongside the county GOP float. “I know his background. I’ve never met the man.”, whose employees later sued him, claiming they weren’t paid. When the company lost $77 million in the first quarter of the year due to slow wildfire seasons, Sheehy quickly resigned. On policy, Sheehy has called for transferring public lands to let states and counties auction them off, and the “pure privatization” of Medicare and other federal health programs. He opposes a state ballot initiative protecting reproductive rights that is likely to pass this year.

His central Montana cattle ranch, which Democrats decry for turning once-public land into a personal amusement park, is a prime elk hunting spot. But Sheehy charges people $10,000 or more per week to hunt there, which rankles sportsmen.....................................