Montana Midterm Senate Results: Jon Tester Wins Nailbiter

Democrat Sen. Jon Tester’s feud with President Trump turned the Montana Senate race into the most expensive in the state’s history, but The Associated Press said Wednesday Tester is projected to hold on to his seat. After a seesaw battle, Tester prevailed over Republican challenger Matt Rosendale, according to unofficial election results announced Wednesday morning.

Tester was one of two Democratic senators in deep red country to hold on to their seats. The other is Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, a state Trump won by more than 40 points in the 2016 presidential election. Trump's margin was less impressive in Montana, but he still defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton by more than 20 points.

Rosendale said Wednesday he called Tester to congratulate him on the victory.

“What an incredible journey this has been over the last year and a half,” Rosendale said in a statement. “It’s been the honor of a lifetime to be your nominee and we couldn’t have gotten this far without my wife Jean and our three sons by my side. I’ve been overwhelmed by the support, trust, time and energy received from folks across this state. …

“While we suffered a setback, our movement and our cause will continue to move forward. I will never stop working to make our country and state better.”

Also notable on the Montana ballot was the race for the state’s single seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. Incumbent Republican Congressman Greg Gianforte, who Trump praised at a rally last month for his assault on a reporter in 2017, defeated Democratic challenger Kathleen Williams, 53 percent to 44.2 percent, according to unofficial election results.

Tester, a third-generation farmer from north central Montana, tried to distance himself from his battles on Capitol Hill with Trump, most notably when he helped derail the president’s pick to lead the Veterans Affairs department, White House physician Ronny Jackson. He ran on his record and didn't invite prominent Democrats to campaign him.

Trump visited the state four times to campaign for Rosendale, a Maryland transplant who moved to the state in 2002. His eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., also campaigned for Rosendale, as did Vice President Mike Pence.

"I can never forget what Jon Tester did to a man that's of the highest quality," Trump said in October. "What (Tester) did was unfair, what he did was vicious, what he did was ... almost, almost, if this is believable, worse."

Nearly half of the state's more than 706,000 voters had cast their ballots before Election Day — including about 20,000 that came Monday before the polls opened. Voters can register on Election Day, but they have to go to their county election offices rather than at their precincts. Absentee ballots that haven't been returned can be delivered in person to a polling site or county election office.

Trump was on the mind of voters as they headed to the polls on a cold, snowy morning. In Billings, 52-year-old computer technician Doran Hatcher told The Associated Press that Trump needs all the support in Congress he can get to "drain the swamp," and that means Tester has to go.

But another Billings resident, Democrat Lynne Fitzgerald, an assistant professor of outdoor leadership at Montana State University Billings, told the AP she wants to elect candidates who are open minded and accepting toward lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and other minorities. She voted for Williams and Tester, she said.

See Also: 2018 Midterm Election A Referendum On 'Trump's GOP'

Tester made several public allegations against Jackson, including that he drank on the job and improperly prescribed medications. Tester did support the president’s second pick, Robert Wilkie, who is now on the job. But that hasn’t tempered Trump, whose visit Saturday was his fourth during the high-stakes campaign.

Polls favored Tester, but said his lead was within the margin of error.

Out-of-state and interest groups poured millions of dollars into the race, where contributions have reached $60 million. With only 700,000 registered voters in the state, that amounts to about $85 spent for each vote so far.

Most of the $60 million has come from so-called super PACs — political action committees that are banned from directly coordinating with candidates, but can raise unlimited money. Rosendale trails Tester with only about $5 million in direct contributions, compared with the incumbent’s $20 million, making the Republican heavily dependent on outside money.

As of Oct. 31, Rosendale received $18,944,773 in outside money, compared to $19,344,529 given to Tester, according to opensecrets.org.

“On every single signature agenda of the president, (Tester) voted against him,” Chris Pack, a spokesman for the Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC that has given Rosendale $2,847,954 as of Oct. 31, told the Associated Press. “Voting against two Supreme Court nominees, then the stuff with Ronny Jackson — he made it very personal with the president.”

Rosendale, who still has a heavy Bostonian accent, was described by Politico as “intense and buttoned up.” Rosendale may not have Tester’s charm, but “people know what they’re going to get with him,” David McIntosh, the president of the Club for Growth, told Politico. The political action committee has given $5 million to Rosendale's campaign.

Tester is “a likable guy in Montana,” McIntosh said, “but when he gets to Washington he votes different.”

Tester has tried to play nice with the president, and took out full page ads in 14 newspapers welcoming Trump to Montana ahead of his visit to Montana in September, telling the AP the visit would be “a great opportunity” for Trump to learn more about the security challenges along the state’s border with Canada.

“Anytime you get a president of the United States to come to Montana, it’s certainly not a bad thing for Montana,” Tester told the AP. “He’s going to do what he’s going to do. I just hope he uses the trip for more than political purposes, but we’ll see.”

Rosendale told the AP Tester’s gambit was “rather amusing.” In comparison, he is making his support for Trump a centerpiece in the campaign, and said Tester’s defiance of the president is costing him the election, despite his huge campaign warchest.

“Tester has stood against President Trump, and it’s going to cost him his re-election in November,” the Republican candidate said.

Tester has avoided taking on Trump in the campaign, and instead has focused on areas where he and the president agree, such as the veterans’ legislation he sponsored and Trump signed into law.

“We knew it was going to be a close race two years ago. ... That’s just the nature of the beast,” Tester told Politico. ”Do I think I’m going to win? Damn right I think I’m going to win.”

Public Land Use Big Issue In House Race

The race for Montana’s lone seat in the House of Representatives was also one of the battleground races Democrats hope to win to regain control of that chamber.

Gianforte, the Republican incumbent, was appointed in a 2017 special election to fill a seat vacated by Ryan Zinke, now the secretary of the Interior. The race was close and Gianforte gained a slight edge over Williams as the campaign enters the home stretch and eventually prevailed.

Zinke, who could face criminal charges in a Department of Justice investigation to determine if he used his office for personal gain, could become a political liability for Gianforte. Ethics allegations have piled up against the interior secretary regarding a host of issues, including negotiations between a parks foundation Zinke established and Halliburton Chairman David Lesar to build a commercial development in the resort area of Whitefish, Zinke’s hometown.

Williams is all for the investigation into Zinke’s conduct, according to the Billings Gazette, but Gianforte thinks the interior secretary is on the right track, and called the investigation “a page out of the (House Minority Leader Nancy) Policy playbook” and said it “takes away from addressing important issues on our public lands.”

Environmentalists are alarmed about the proposed sale of about 10,000 acres of public lands for oil and gas development, warning it would degrade critical headwaters, habitat and open spaces.

Gianforte wants to streamline the process with the Bureau of Land Management for drill permits, which currently take 260 days to process in Montana. In other states, which have less stringent environmental standards, the permits are approved in less than 30 days.

“The federal permitting process for coal and gas leasing is out of control,” he told the Billings newspaper. “This discrepancy must be addressed.”

Williams said the royalties the corporations pay hasn’t increased since the 1980s.

“I wish I could pay the same amount for my groceries as they were in the ‘80s,” she said. “We need to have a conversation about whether or not that’s fair to all of us taxpayers.”

Voters can read more about the candidates’ environmental issues facing Montana on the Billings Gazette website.

Gianforte told the Flathead Beacon his friendly rapport with Trump gives him an advantage in representing Montana’s interests in an administration hostile to Democrats and that his first year in Congress has been productive.

“I’m running on my record,” he told the newspaper. “Consumer confidence is up, regulations have been rolled back and Montana is better off under the Trump administration.”

Unlike some Democrats in the contentious midterm election, Williams isn’t attacking Trump.

“I’m looking forward to working with the president on any common interest we can find,” she told Science Magazine, though she noted when pressed that Trump’s tariffs could hurt Montana’s wheat farmers.

“I object somewhat to the tone going on in Washington,” she said, but “would chalk it up to the hyperpartisanship and tribalism” in Congress.

The Associated Press contributed reporting.

Lead image: President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at Minuteman Aviation Hangar in Missoula, Mont., Thursday Oct. 18, 2018. Trump is in Missoula to rally support for Senate candidate Matt Rosendale. (AP Photo/Lido Vizzutti)