Jon Tester and Tim Sheehy's Fiery Montana Debate: Five Key Takeaways

Incumbent Sen. Jon Tester faced off against Republican challenger Tim Sheehy on Monday night in what could be the final debate in the Montana Senate race this election cycle.

As Democrats fight to maintain their slim Senate majority, this race could be crucial in determining which party controls the upper chamber next year.

Republicans only need to secure two seats in November to gain a Senate majority when the new Congress meets next year. They are widely expected to win a seat in West Virginia, meaning Montana could be key to their success.

Polls have shown mixed results. Most, including a recent AARP poll conducted Aug. 25-26, put Sheehy, a former Navy SEAL and Donald Trump-backed business owner, at the top by six points, and a Republican-backed Public poll Opinion Strategies conducted between August 18 and 20 showed Sheehy leading by seven points.

However, some polls favored Tester, the last remaining Democrat holding high office in Montana, or showed a tie. An August 6-14 RMG Research poll gave Tester a five-point lead, while a June 11-13 Public Opinion Strategies poll showed the candidates tied. A June poll by Fabrizio, Lee & Associates also found both candidates tied.

The Cook Political Report describes the race as “lean Republican.” Meanwhile, the RealClearPolitics poll tracker gives Sheehy a 5.2-point lead.

As the race heats up, here are the key takeaways from the recent Tester-Sheehy debate leading up to Election Day.

Indians

During the debate, Tester called on Sheehy to apologize for derogatory comments he made last year that were reported Char Koosta news, the official publication of the Flathead Indian Reservation. In the comments, Sheehy told a group of laughing supporters that he had “aligned with all the Indians… while they were drunk at 8 a.m.” and claimed they had thrown beer cans at him while he was herding cattle on a ranch on the Crow Reservation .

“Yeah, insensitive,” Sheehy said of his comments Monday night after Tester called on him to apologize. “I come from the military, like many of our tribal members. You know, we make insensitive jokes and sometimes off-color jokes, and you know, I'm an adult. I take responsibility for that.”

Sheehy then tried to shift the discussion to the immigration crisis, but Tester criticized his rival for his comment.

“Tim, the statement you made demeans Native Americans in this country,” Tester said. “You’re a big guy, just apologize.”

“Are you going to apologize for opening the border?” Sheehy replied.

Montana is home to seven Indian reservations and nearly 70,000 Native Americans, who make up about 7 percent of the state's population, according to U.S. Census data. This voting bloc has traditionally leaned Democratic, but in recent years Republicans in Montana have actively sought to take tribal leaders to court in hopes of winning their support in elections.

The border

Sheehy consistently pointed the finger at Tester and the Biden administration over the surge in illegal immigration at the southern border, arguing that the border crisis has contributed to rising housing prices, higher consumer costs and other economic problems.

“The Democrats in the Senate and the Democrats in the White House created this border crisis. We had a secure border four years ago, Donald Trump handed the Biden-Harris administration a sealed border,” Sheehy said. “Kamala Harris, the border czar, has kept the border wide open for three years with the support of her friends on the Hill like Senator Tester and Chuck Schumer.”

However, Tester tried to distance himself from the Biden administration's immigration policies. “I will be the first to tell you that President Biden has not done a good job on the southern border,” he hit back.

“We had a solution — it was there, it could still be passed,” Tester added, referring to the bipartisan compromise bill that failed in the Senate due to a lack of Republican support under pressure from Trump. The bill would have included a number of provisions aimed at reducing record numbers of crossings at the southern border and tightening the asylum system.

Tester said: “It could have been passed six or eight months ago, but the bottom line is that before it was even released for reading, Tim said, 'No, I'm not going to support that' because his party bosses had told him he would be what he wanted.” had to do.

Tester distances himself from Democrats on Israel

Tester also distanced himself from his party members' calls for a ceasefire in Gaza, stating during the debate that Israel should be able to protect itself and also referred to the war between Russia and Ukraine.

“They were attacked on October 7th for no reason at all, and that’s why they’re responding,” Tester said. “Do I agree with everything Bibi Netanyahu did? Absolutely not. But the truth is that Israel must be able to protect itself while the United States seeks and helps the world seek a political solution to these two conflicts.”

Highlighting his military background, Sheehy criticized the Biden-Harris administration, claiming that the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan had sparked further global conflict.

“That set off a domino chain of weakness that led us down the path of chaos we are on today, from Israel to Ukraine to the Indo-Pacific, where we see China taking steps that were unthinkable just 20 years ago Sheehy said.

Tester unloads on Sheehy to protect federal lands

Tester criticized Sheehy for his record protecting federal lands, which are a major problem in Montana.

“What they say in back rooms when they don't think the recorder is running or the camera isn't rolling is usually what they're thinking,” Tester said. “And Tim said we had to hand our land over to either his rich friends or the county government. That doesn’t protect public lands.”

Tester also pointed to HuffPost's previous reporting last year that showed Sheehy had called for federal lands to be “handed over” to states or counties and had resigned from his position on the board of the Property and Environment Research Center, a property and rights organization. had not disclosed the non-profit organization for environmental research, which has already advocated the privatization of federal land in the past.

Sheehy defended himself during the debate, saying, “No one, including myself, in this organization has ever advocated for the sale of our public lands – they never have and never will.”

In a 1999 policy paper titled “How and Why to Privatize Federal Lands,” then-PERC Director Terry Anderson, along with others, outlined a plan they described as a “blueprint for auctioning off all public lands within 20 to 40 years.” years”. “

About 30 percent of Montana is federal land.

abortion

Abortion rights were one of the main topics discussed during the debate. It comes as Montana voters will vote on a ballot measure that would later enshrine abortion rights in the state's constitution Roe v. Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court.

During the debate, Tester said he supported the initiative.

“I want Roe reinstated. And I think this initiative, this ballot initiative that's going to be on the ballot will do just that. “She will enshrine it in the Constitution so women can make their own health decisions,” Tester said. “My opponent, on the other hand, feels exactly the opposite. He feels more entitled to make this decision than the women.”

Sheehy stated that he would support the ballot initiative if Montana voters chose to implement it and expressed support for certain “exceptions.”

“If this particular initiative is passed, it will be the law of the land and I will definitely respect it. But the reality is that at some point we have to protect the child's life. He could be the next Albert Einstein, the next. “As far as we know, Michael Jordan is the next Jon Tester,” Sheehy said.

The former Navy SEAL further claimed that his opponent supports “abortion up to and including the moment of birth.” There is no evidence to support this claim.

Tester responded: “That born alive statement Tim Sheehy just made was complete nonsense – that’s a lie, that’s not happening, those lives are already protected. You know it, Tim. You're just saying it to try to politicize this issue more than it already is.

The senator added: “Women should be able to make their own health decisions. It shouldn't be the federal government, a bureaucrat or a judge. Women should do it. That’s what Montanans like.”