EGN NEWS DESK
Tim Sheehy, a businessman and former Navy SEAL, gained the Republican main for U.S. Senate in Montana on Tuesday, based on The Associated Press, setting him up for a November showdown in opposition to Senator Jon Tester, the Democratic incumbent.
With roughly half of the vote counted, Mr. Sheehy had 73 %, nicely forward of his lesser-known opponents. Brad Johnson, Montana’s former secretary of state, had 19 % of the vote, and Charles Walkingchild had 7.5 %.
“As a Navy SEAL, I’ve all the time put nation earlier than self and I’m working for the U.S. Senate to finish Joe Biden and Jon Tester’s inflation, seal our border, safe our youngsters’s future, and put America First,” Mr. Sheehy mentioned in an announcement, including that he was “humbled and honored by all of the assist.”
The Republican main was basically a foregone conclusion since February, when Representative Matt Rosendale abruptly exited the race — lower than every week after he entered it — citing former President Donald J. Trump’s endorsement of Mr. Sheehy. Mr. Rosendale, a right-wing hard-liner, had been seen as the one critical challenger to Mr. Sheehy, for whom the Republican institution had labored to clear the sphere. His victory is a boon for Republicans as they work to recapture management of the Senate, competing on a positive map through which numerous weak Democrats face robust re-election battles.
“Tim Sheehy is a robust conservative, an American hero and a profitable businessman who will convey an outsider’s perspective to a damaged Washington,” mentioned Senator Steve Daines, the Montana Republican who leads the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which works to elect Republicans to the Senate. “The clearest path to a Republican Senate majority runs by means of Montana.”
Mr. Sheehy will face a formidable opponent in Mr. Tester, a preferred incumbent who has survived previous challenges in his ruby-red state by leaning on his background as a third-generation Montana farmer and his status of bipartisanship. Recent polls have instructed a good race, and the nonpartisan Cook Political Report charges Montana a “tossup.” Mr. Tester formally captured the Democratic nomination on Tuesday.
In a submit on X on Tuesday night time, Mr. Tester acknowledged his November opponent: “It’s official. I’m going through off in opposition to Mitch McConnell’s handpicked candidate Tim Sheehy for Montana’s U.S. Senate seat. And I’m going to win.”
Mr. Tester has a money benefit; he raised $4.1 million between April 1 and May 15, based on current monetary filings, and his marketing campaign has $11.7 million money readily available. Mr. Sheehy’s marketing campaign raised $2.1 million in the identical interval — together with $600,000 the candidate lent himself — and had $2.2 million money readily available.
But Republicans consider Mr. Tester, first elected in 2006, is particularly weak this election. After greater than 17 years in Washington, they suppose his rural, working-class narrative has worn skinny with Montanan voters, and argue he has been a dependable vote for legal guidelines signed by President Biden, who’s unpopular with the state’s voters. They plan to pin the border disaster and the rising prices of residing in Montana on Mr. Biden and, by extension, Mr. Tester.
Democrats have countered with assaults on Mr. Sheehy’s biography. As a rich businessman who grew up in Minnesota and moved to Montana a decade in the past, they are saying he epitomizes a development of wealthy transplants transferring to the state and driving up housing costs, which has infuriated longtime residents. (Mr. Sheehy, who runs an aerial firefighting firm and owns a stake in a cattle ranch, made his wealth after transferring to the state.)
They have additionally poked holes in his again story, pointing particularly to lingering questions over how he sustained a gunshot wound that he has mentioned got here from his time in Afghanistan.
