Despite facing a mountain of controversy on the campaign trail, Tim Sheehy managed to pull off what Republicans have been hoping to for more than a decade: oust incumbent Democratic Sen. Jon Tester.
Sheehy’s victory likely cements Montana, once a purple state, as blood red. Tester was the only statewide-elected Democrat left in the Treasure State and his seat was among a handful that Republicans saw as key to wresting control of the Senate from Democrats.
Tester, a moderate and the only working farmer in the Senate, will exit his seat after 18 years.
Sheehy, a former Navy SEAL and millionaire businessman, is a newcomer to politics, having never run for elected office. Republicans like Montana Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.), who chairs the powerful National Republican Senatorial Committee, courted Sheehy to run against Tester, no doubt because of his business and military acumen and his ability to self-finance a campaign.
Sheehy received an early endorsement from former President Donald Trump and ran a MAGA-style campaign, promising to restore “common sense” to Washington and sticking closely to Republican talking points on border security, energy and abortion. He repeatedly attacked Tester as a “rubber stamp” for the Biden administration’s border and economic policies.
“Montanans want common sense back. They want a secure border, safe streets, cheap gas, cops are good, criminals are bad, boys are boys, girls are girls,” he told Fox Business a few days before Tuesday’s election. “It’s a very clear referendum on the fact that Montanans want an administration that’ll put America first, and they need a Senate to approve that agenda. We’re going to give it to them.”
Michael Ciaglo via Getty Images
Along the way, Sheehy became embroiled in scandal — from his own conflicting accounts about how he received a gunshot wound and the purported “success” of his aerial firefighting business to fierce backlash over previous comments, including calling for federal lands to be “turned over” to states and peddling a racist trope about Native Americans and alcohol.
Amid mounting negative media attention, Sheehy increasingly resorted to attacking the press while shielding himself from any hard-hitting interviews.
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Sally Mauk, a longtime former journalist and current host of a weekly political analysis show on Montana Public Radio, recently called Sheehy “the least accessible politician” she’s seen in her four decades covering Montana politics.
In the end, voters in Montana — a state where many longtime residents have grown frustrated with a steady influx of wealthy, out-of-state transplants — elected Sheehy, a multi-millionaire Minnesota native, to replace Tester, a three-term incumbent and fourth-generation Montana farmer.
The race was the most expensive in Montana’s history, with a whopping $243 million spent as of last month.
See full results from the Montana Senate election here.