Trump target survives in Montana
Tester drew president’s ire over VA nomination
BILLINGS, Mont. — Only U.S.
Sen. Jon Tester of Montana survived President Donald Trump’s aggressive campaign to topple Democratic senators from Republican-leaning states who voted against his Supreme Court picks.
The president and his surrogates returned repeatedly to Montana, North Dakota, Missouri and Indiana this election season, pounding on Tester and other incumbent Democrats who opposed the nominations of Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch.
Conservative groups followed the White House’s lead by pouring tens of millions of dollars into ad campaigns against the Democratic senators.
Tester earned particular ire for his central role in derailing Trump’s pick for Veteran Affairs secretary, Ronny Jackson, by airing misconduct allegations against the White House doctor.
While other Democrats in states that Trump carried in 2016 went down Tuesday — Heidi Heitkamp in North Dakota, Claire Mccaskill in Missouri and Joe Donnelly in Indiana — Tester’s victory helped blunt the GOP’S expansion of its majority in the Senate. Joe Manchin held on in West Virginia, but he backed the president’s court nominees.
Tester fended off his opponent by combining his populist appeal as the Senate’s only farmer with a message heavy on health care and veterans’ issues. He targeted female voters with frequent references to the need to protect reproductive choice. Tester also reached out to young people who might be disaffected with Trump.
Through it all, Tester avoided tangling directly with the president. He sought to defuse their feud by frequently citing veterans’ legislation that the Democrat sponsored and Trump signed.
The conciliatory tone continued after the election results trickled in Wednesday, even as Democrats elsewhere appeared emboldened to take on Trump after their party captured a U.S. House majority.
“Montanans spoke loud and clear about the direction they want Montana to go,” Tester said during a victory speech to supporters in the city of Great Falls. “The people I talked to, the biggest issue they bring up is, ‘Why can’t you guys work together?’ We can, and we will.”