Democrats Get More Terrible News and Lose Another Crucial Senate Seat
Despite his many scandals, Republican Tim Sheehy has defeated Democrat Jon Tester and flipped Montana’s only blue Democratic Senate seat—delivering an even stronger Senate majority to Mitch McConnell.
Sheehy leads Tester 52.9 to 45.4 percent, according to the Associated Press, which called the race on Wednesday morning, with 85 percent of votes reported.
The news is a major win for Republicans, who now hold a 10-seat majority in the Senate, with six races remaining to be called. Trump won the state in 2016 and 2020 and yet again this year.
Sheehy’s campaign was one disaster after the next. You might remember Sheehy’s disparaging comments about Native Americans and young women, or his mysterious story about a gunshot wound he received in battle.
In August, a local news outlet released recordings in which Sheehy made several racist remarks about the Crow Reservation at private fundraisers last year. In one clip, Sheehy called an event with the Native community “a great way to bond with all the Indians out there, while they’re drunk at 8 a.m.” Sheehy acknowledged the comments were insensitive—but refused to apologize despite Native leaders’ demands. Native voters make up about 6 percent of Montana’s electorate, and played a large part in voter mobilization efforts.
Sheehy then attracted even more ire from his state’s voters when he called women under 25 “single-issue” voters who are “indoctrinated” on the topic of abortion. “That’s all they want to talk about. They are single-issue voters. “It’s all about pro-choice, pro-choice,” Sheehy whined at a meet and greet last year.
And just days before the election, Sheehy admitted there are no medical records to back up his story that he was shot in combat in Afghanistan. A former national park ranger went public stating that in reality, Sheehy shot himself at the Glacier National Park in 2015.
While Sheehy campaigned on being a Navy Seal and successful businessman, he is additionally being sued by his former employees for allegedly scamming them out of millions, while at the same time losing his company $77 million.
But big business came in to save the day for Sheehy. Twelve billionaires gave more than $1 million to help boost the Republican. These included members of the Walton family, organizations linked to Charles Koch, and the founder of the Jimmy John’s sandwich chain. Additionally, the CEO of the private equity group Blackstone Group donated $5 million alone to a group that funneled money into efforts to defeat Tester. Blackstone not so coincidentally owns the Wyoming oil and gas pipeline company Tallgrass Energy, of which Sheehy’s brother is the president.
All of Sheehy’s strange stories, coupled with Montana’s rapidly changing demographics, ultimately weren’t enough to catapult Tester to victory over the Republican and his billionaire friends.