Democratic Sen. John Tester and Republican challenger Tim Sheehy faced off in Montana’s first Senate debate on Sunday — an early showdown in one of the most important races to determine control of the Senate next year.
The debate, sponsored by the Montana Broadcasters Association, offered a glimpse into how Democratic candidates campaigning in predominantly Republican states like Tester fare in 2020 with President Joe Biden, who lost Montana by more than 16 points. As Tester tried to get away from Biden, Sheehy tried to tie Biden to him.
“Some of the energy regulations coming out of the Biden administration are completely unacceptable,” Tester said Sunday morning, criticizing the Biden administration’s environmental regulations. “I pushed back on those rules, and right now I’m overturning the EPA’s rules that wanted to shut down a coal plant.”
“The bottom line is that he doesn’t listen to me enough,” Tester said of his relationship with Biden.
He asked about Biden’s new one enforcement action Aimed at curbing migrant border crossings, Tester again found fault with him.
“The president issued some orders [that] It clearly should have been done years ago,” he said of the Biden administration’s recent actions at the border.
Sheehy said Tester often voted with Biden, and he touched on specific issues. On the issue of border security, Sheehy said, “Time and time again, Joe Biden and Senate Democrats, including Jon Tester, have had the opportunity to close this border and pass legislation to do so.” Sheehy later dismissed Biden’s latest executive action as “political theater.”
Sheehy, a former Navy SEAL and entrepreneur, also tied Tester to Biden on military issues.
“John Tester’s Chairmanship of Defense Appropriations [sub]committee and Joe Biden’s administration in the White House has led to the lowest level of military readiness in a generation,” Sheehy said.
“Instead of making sure we’re training the warfighter, we’ve focused on DEI and ESG in our military,” Sheehy said. (DEI is short for “diversity, equity and inclusion” initiatives; “ESG” stands for “environmental, social and governance” principles.)
He has previously said that watching America withdraw from Afghanistan in 2021 is a motivating factor in his bid for the Senate.
Republicans need a net gain of two seats in the Senate to secure a majority next year, or one seat and the vice presidency in a tiebreaker. Democrats are defending three seats in states that former President Donald Trump easily won in 2020.
The retirement of Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, who earlier left the Democratic Party to become an independent, left him open for the GOP to win, and Tester’s race and Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio are two more key targets for Republicans. . Brown experiences similar red state dynamics Trump-backed Republican Bernie Moreno In Ohio — not just trying to convince voters to cross party lines, but also managing the low preference numbers in Biden’s home state.