Democratic Sen. Jon Tester and Republican challenger Tim Sheehy squared off in Montana’s first Senate debate Sunday — an early showdown in one of the most important races to determine control of the Senate next year.
The debate, sponsored by the Montana Broadcasters Association, offered a preview of how Democratic candidates campaigning in largely Republican states, like Tester, are navigating the task of sharing the ballot with President Joe Biden, who lost Montana by more than 16 points in 2020. While Tester sought distance from Biden, Sheehy tried to tie Biden to him.
“Some of the regulations that have come out of the Biden administration on energy are totally unacceptable,” Tester said Sunday morning, criticizing the Biden administration’s environmental regulations. “I pushed back on those regulations, and currently, I’m pushing back on regulations that the EPA has put out that wants to shut down a coal plant.”
“The bottom line is, he doesn’t listen to me enough,” Tester said of his relationship with Biden.
Asked about Biden’s new executive action aimed at curbing migrant border crossings, Tester again found fault with him.
“The president put out some executive orders [that] should have been done years ago, quite frankly,” he said of the Biden administration’s recent moves on the border.
Sheehy said Tester had voted with Biden most of the time, and he dug in on specific issues. On the issue of border security, Sheehy said, “Time and time again, Joe Biden and Senate Democrats, including Jon Tester, have had the opportunity to shut down that border and pass legislation to do so.” Sheehy later went on to dismiss Biden’s recent executive action as “political theater.”
Sheehy, a former Navy SEAL and entrepreneur, also tied Tester to Biden on military issues.
“Jon Tester’s chairmanship of the defense appropriations [sub]committee and Joe Biden’s stewardship in the White House has led to the lowest military readiness in a generation,” Sheehy said.
“We focused on DEI and ESG in our military instead of making sure we are training warfighters,” Sheehy added. (DEI is short for "diversity, equity and inclusion" initiatives; "ESG" stands for "environmental, social and governance" principles.)
He said earlier that watching the American withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 was a motivating factor for his Senate bid.
Republicans need a net gain of two Senate seats to guarantee a majority next year or one seat plus the tiebreaking vice presidency. And Democrats are defending three seats in states former President Donald Trump won comfortably in 2020.
The retirement of Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, who recently left the Democratic Party to be an independent, has left it wide open for a GOP gain, and Tester’s race and Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown’s in Ohio are two more prime targets for Republicans. Brown faces a similar red-state dynamic against Trump-backed Republican Bernie Moreno in Ohio — not only trying to persuade constituents to cross party lines but also managing Biden’s low favorability numbers in his state.
