The nominees are set in one of the most momentous political contests in the nation.
Tuesday night���s primary election results confirmed what most people expected: The battle for Montana’s coveted Senate seat will be between Republican Tim Sheehy, a former Navy SEAL and Belgrade business owner, and Democrat Jon Tester, the Big Sandy farmer who has served in the U.S. Senate since 2007.
The Associated Press declared Tester and Sheehy the winners after polls closed Tuesday evening. Vote counts are still coming in, but Sheehy is currently leading in his primary with 73% of the vote to 19% for Brad Johnson and 7% for Charles Walking Child as of 10:40 p.m.
![Tim Sheehy Primary Election](https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/mtstandard.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/d/15/d1516336-9fe2-59a4-9aa7-6db67c110ed6/665fdc335c2d2.image.jpg?resize=150%2C100 150w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/mtstandard.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/d/15/d1516336-9fe2-59a4-9aa7-6db67c110ed6/665fdc335c2d2.image.jpg?resize=200%2C133 200w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/mtstandard.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/d/15/d1516336-9fe2-59a4-9aa7-6db67c110ed6/665fdc335c2d2.image.jpg?resize=225%2C150 225w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/mtstandard.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/d/15/d1516336-9fe2-59a4-9aa7-6db67c110ed6/665fdc335c2d2.image.jpg?resize=300%2C200 300w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/mtstandard.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/d/15/d1516336-9fe2-59a4-9aa7-6db67c110ed6/665fdc335c2d2.image.jpg?resize=400%2C267 400w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/mtstandard.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/d/15/d1516336-9fe2-59a4-9aa7-6db67c110ed6/665fdc335c2d2.image.jpg?resize=540%2C360 540w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/mtstandard.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/d/15/d1516336-9fe2-59a4-9aa7-6db67c110ed6/665fdc335c2d2.image.jpg?resize=640%2C427 640w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/mtstandard.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/d/15/d1516336-9fe2-59a4-9aa7-6db67c110ed6/665fdc335c2d2.image.jpg?resize=750%2C500 750w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/mtstandard.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/d/15/d1516336-9fe2-59a4-9aa7-6db67c110ed6/665fdc335c2d2.image.jpg?resize=990%2C660 990w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/mtstandard.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/d/15/d1516336-9fe2-59a4-9aa7-6db67c110ed6/665fdc335c2d2.image.jpg?resize=1035%2C690 1035w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/mtstandard.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/d/15/d1516336-9fe2-59a4-9aa7-6db67c110ed6/665fdc335c2d2.image.jpg?resize=1200%2C800 1200w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/mtstandard.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/d/15/d1516336-9fe2-59a4-9aa7-6db67c110ed6/665fdc335c2d2.image.jpg?resize=1333%2C888 1333w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/mtstandard.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/d/15/d1516336-9fe2-59a4-9aa7-6db67c110ed6/665fdc335c2d2.image.jpg?resize=1476%2C984 1476w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/mtstandard.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/d/15/d1516336-9fe2-59a4-9aa7-6db67c110ed6/665fdc335c2d2.image.jpg?resize=1763%2C1175 2008w)
Republican candidate for U.S. Senate Tim Sheehy addresses supporters at a primary election night party in Gallatin Gateway on Tuesday, June 4, 2024.
Sheehy, at his watch party in Gallatin Gateway surrounded by his gaggle of children looking out at an ecstatic crowd, said the reason he's running is for his kids and others like them.
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"We're doing it for the kids, because we cannot hand our children a bankrupt nation. We cannot hand them a nation that no longer loves itself. We cannot hand them a nation for the wide-open border on the precipice of World War Three. We have to hand them a strong America. We have to hand them America they can have hope in. We have to hand them America that they can be proud of, and that's why we're doing this," he said to the crowd after the race was called.
This year is the first time Tester's name is on the ballot in a presidential election cycle. In his last election, primary turnout reached 41%; it was 54% in 2020 in a primary mostly held by mail because of the pandemic.
Tester is one of two Democrats running for reelection in states that Donald Trump won in 2020. All eyes are on Montana, as it's predicted that the winner of the U.S. Senate race is likely to be one of the main determining factors in which party has control of the chamber, where Democrats currently hold a slim majority.
Tester’s supporters held a watch party in Bozeman on Tuesday night. He received 97% of the vote, pulling down 3,709 more votes than President Joe Biden at the top of the ticket.
"The game plan has been the same for every election I've been in, Lawrence," Tester told Lawrence O'Donnell on MSNBC Tuesday evening. "They try to make me into something I'm not so they can run against that person. The bottom line is I listen to Montanans. They're my boss.
Tester briefly addressed a crowd of supporters in Bozeman via livestream from D.C, but the video feed quality was not good so the campaign did not share those remarks.
“Jon Tester has always put Montanans first and has delivered results to support hardworking families across his state," Senate Majority PAC President JB Poersch said in a statement following the results. "That’s exactly why come November, voters will reject McConnell’s fake cowboy and re-elect Montana-first Senator Jon Tester.”
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U.S. Sen. Jon Tester speaks at the Montana Democrats' annual Mansfield Metcalf Dinner at the Lewis and Clark County Fairgrounds in Helena on March 2.
Tester’s reelection battles have broken fundraising and expenditure records, and this one will continue that trend: Those involved believe that the combined expenditures from the two candidates and the groups aligned with them will eclipse $200 million.
Already the race has eclipsed financial records set first in 2018, when the race between Tester and now-U.S. Rep. Matt Rosendale was the most expensive in state history. Tester has already brought in $37 million, outpacing his total six years ago of $20.9 million. Sheehy’s $10.5 million to date is almost double what Rosendale hauled in.
The group Open Secrets, which tracks money in elections, tallies more than $13.7 million in outside spending already, in addition to $25.2 million from Tester and $8.2 million from Sheehy.
While the party’s nominees were just set, this race was already being fought like a general election contest, with Tester and Sheehy filling the airwaves with ads attacking each other.
That said, throughout 2023 and into this year, it was believed that Sheehy would face a much tougher primary challenge as Rep. Matt Rosendale repeatedly teased a bid for the Senate. Rosendale did jump into the race in February, but his candidacy only lasted a couple days. Following intense pressure to drop out, nasty unsubstantiated rumors swirling about his personal life and the news that Donald Trump endorsed Sheehy, Rosendale bowed out.
Sheehy also has the endorsements of Gov. Greg Gianforte, Rep. Ryan Zinke, Sen. Steve Daines and the National Republican Senatorial Committee, one of the groups responsible for bringing a Republican majority back to the Senate.
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Republican candidate for U.S. Senate Tim Sheehy talks with a supporter at a primary election night party in Gallatin Gateway on Tuesday, June 4, 2024.
“The clearest path to a Republican Senate majority runs through Montana," Daines said in a statement following the results. "Tim Sheehy will deliver a Senate majority for President Trump, Jon Tester wants to deliver a Senate majority for Joe Biden. That is the choice in this election. President Trump is counting on Montana to elect Tim Sheehy.”
One Sheehy supporter at the event was so ecstatic about the Republican candidate that she pulled him by his arm over to the reporter with the Montana State News Bureau, insisting that Sheehy chat with the press.
Since Sheehy joined the race, the first-time political candidate has faced a slew of bad headlines, including carpetbagging criticism, half-truths about who is receiving the proceeds from his book and revelations that he lied about a gunshot wound.
Over the last few months, the Montana GOP, particularly chairman Don "K" Kaltschmidt and Zinke, has continually urged unity among the party in an effort to deliver a victory in the U.S. Senate contest. For Sheehy to win, it is commonly believed that he will need to garner support from as many Republicans as possible, while Tester has eked out victories in the past by getting votes from ticket-splitting Republicans.
As he has in past races, Tester must thread an ever-shrinking eye of the needle in a state that has become increasingly red in past election cycles. In his first two elections to the Senate, he didn’t capture more than 50% of the vote and his nearly 18,000-vote win in 2018 was his largest ever.
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Sen. Jon Tester speaks at a press conference in Helena in 2021.
Tester’s campaign already has doubled down on examples of the incumbent parting from his party’s leadership, especially on immigration and the southern border. The senator also recently started running ads emphasizing his work on veterans issues, a hallmark of his time in the Senate. On the attack side, Tester’s camp is working to paint Sheehy as an untrustworthy carpetbagger who’s too rich to understand everyday Montanans.
Going into the summer, Tester’s campaign has a huge cash advantage on Sheehy. As of the latest financial report, which was filed in mid-May, the Tester camp has over five times more cash in the bank: $11.7 million versus Sheehy’s $2.2 million in the bank. Nearly $400,000 of that $2 million sum, however, the Sheehy campaign is unable to spend as it is earmarked for a recount.
"At this point, I don't need your money anymore. I don't want your money. I need your effort. I need you to talk to people. I need you to remind people that we need to care about what happens this fall," Sheehy said Tuesday. "We need to care about the future of America."
The two nominees already have a debate set for the this Sunday, June 9 in Anaconda. It is not open to the public, but will be televised live and tape-delayed on multiple TV channels and radio stations across the state.
Third-party candidates have played a role in Tester’s past races. Michael Downey had 59% of the vote just before 11 p.m. to 41% for Robert Barb in that party's primary. Libertarian Sid Daud is also running. Green Party candidates are typically seen as drawing votes away from Democrats while Libertarians can siphon off Republican votes.
Editor's note: This story has been updated to add comments from Tester on MSNBC on primary night.