Control of the U.S. Senate is at stake as Montana's tester debates his Republican challenger

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — U.S. Sen. Jon Tester of Montana is fighting to keep his seat and prevent a Republican takeover of the Senate as the three-term lawmaker faces Republican challenger Tim Sheehy in a debate Monday night.

Tester is the last remaining Democrat holding high office in Montana, and the race is expected to be the most expensive in the state's history. Republican party leaders, including former President Donald Trump, handpicked Sheehy in hopes of unseating Tester, a 68-year-old farmer.

Republicans only need to gain two seats to gain a majority in the Senate, and they are widely believed to have one seat in West Virginia.

Sheehy, 38, is a former US Navy SEAL and a wealthy businessman. He tried to undermine Tester's longstanding support among moderates by highlighting the lawmaker's ties to lobbyists. It's a tactic that Tester himself used successfully in his first Senate victory in 2006, also against a three-term incumbent.

Tester has sought to turn the race into a referendum on reproductive rights for women by closely tying his campaign to a November ballot initiative that would enshrine abortion rights in the Montana Constitution after the overturning of Roe v. Wade.

He called Sheehy an unwelcome outsider who was “part of the problem” of rising taxes after housing prices rose in many areas of the state due to a housing shortage.

Sheehy said his candidacy was motivated by the disastrous U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan. The political newcomer's campaign stalled at times: He admitted to lying about the origin of a gunshot wound in his arm and faced backlash for derogatory comments he made to supporters about Native Americans that were leaked to a tribal newspaper .

Still, Republicans remain confident that they have finally gotten a handle on Tester, 18 years after he entered the Senate. Recent polls suggest Sheehy will make gains in a state Trump won by 17 percentage points in 2020.

The state has drifted further to the right with each successive election cycle, thanks in part to newcomers like Sheehy, who came to Montana in 2014 to start an aerial firefighting business.

Sheehy has embraced his status as an outsider, saying he would speak for both newcomers and longtime residents. He repeatedly tries to lump Tester in with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, highlighting public dissatisfaction with the administration's efforts to curb illegal immigration at the southern border.

To soften the attacks, Tester skipped the Democratic convention last month, declined to endorse Harris and avoided mentioning her on the campaign trail. He opposed the government's tightening pollution regulations for coal-fired power plants and urged it to do more to combat immigration.

Sheehy has no political track record to criticize, but Tester and Democrats have pointed to his past comments in support of abortion restrictions. They claim Sheehy would help “ban abortions in Montana.”