Republican Tim Sheehy has unseated Democratic Sen. Jon Tester in Montana’s 2024 Senate race, The Related Press tasks, marking a big victory for Republicans on this election cycle.
The Montana Senate seat was recognized as Republicans’ clearest path to retaking the Senate majority, as polling predicted that Sheehy would overtake Tester. In flip, the race proved to be one in every of this 12 months’s priciest. In keeping with Fox News, $309 had been spent on every voter by late October — including as much as $243.3 million.
By the point Sheehy was declared the winner on Wednesday, Nov. 6, Republicans had already secured the Senate majority for the upcoming 119th Congress after an upset victory in Ohio that unseated incumbent Democrat Sherrod Brown.
Tester, 68, has represented Montana within the Senate since 2006, when he flipped the seat blue for the primary time since 1988. He has served on the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, the Democratic Senatorial Marketing campaign Committee and the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, and he was beforehand the president of the Montana state Senate.
A farmer and former music instructor, Tester has obtained usually constructive approval scores all through his time within the Senate, however heightened nationwide partisanship made his seat harder to defend this time round in a deeply conservative state.
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Tester had been reportedly contemplating retiring from politics, however introduced in February 2023 that he would run for reelection, as per Politico. He has voiced help for safeguarding ladies’s reproductive freedoms and has been ranked probably the most efficient lawmakers in Washington, D.C., in accordance with The Center for Effective Lawmaking.
Much less in style in Montana, although, was his vote to convict Donald Trump, 78, throughout each of the previous president’s impeachment trials. He declined to endorse Kamala Harris for president in 2024, Bozeman Daily Chronicle reported.
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Sheehy, 38, proved a robust candidate for the Republican Social gathering when he secured the nomination in June.
A Minnesota-born veteran and businessman, Sheehy touted on the marketing campaign trial that he “constructed one of many largest aerial firefighting firms in America” and “began a veteran-led cattle ranching and feeding operation.”
The daddy of 4 ran as an anti-choice candidate, however says he helps IVF. He earned Trump’s endorsement.
