Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) faced off against GOP challenger Tim Sheehy on Monday night in what could be the final debate this cycle in the Montana Senate race.
The debate, at times tense, comes as Tester is the last remaining Democrat to hold high office in Montana. The Senate race is likely to determine the balance of power in the upper chamber as Republicans only need to pick up two seats to take the Senate majority.
An average of polls shows Sheehy has a seven-point lead over Tester in a state where Trump won by 17 percentage points.
Here are the takeaways from the latest debate between the two candidates ahead of election day.
Candidates debate over role of federal government
Tester and Sheehy debated over the role the federal government should play in the housing crisis, veterans affairs and healthcare – however the most clear divide between the candidates came on the issue of abortion and whether there should be a single national abortion law in the country.
Tester attempted to tie his campaign to a November ballot initiative in the state that would enshrine abortion rights in Montana’s constitution after Roe vs. Wade.
“I want to see Roe reinstated. And I think this initiative, this ballot initiative that’s going to be on the ballot, will do exactly that. It will enshrine it into the constitution so that women can make their own health care decisions,” Tester said. “My opponent, on the other hand, feels exactly the opposite. He feels he’s more entitled to make that decision than the women are.”
Sheehy said he would support the ballot initiative if Montana voters decide to put it in place and said he supports “exceptions.”
“If this particular initiative should pass, it’s the law of the land and certainly I’ll respect it. But, the reality is, at some point we have to protect the life of the child, he could be the next Albert Einstein, the next Michael Jordan, the next Jon Tester for all we know,” Sheehy said.
Sheehy went on to claim that Tester’s support for a bill that would protect abortion access means that he supports “abortion up to and including in a moment of birth.” Sheehy’s claim is not supported within that legislation.
“That born alive statement that Tim Sheehy just made was total bunk – it’s a lie, doesn’t happen, 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,” Tester said, mentioning a recent case of a woman who died in Georgia after receiving delayed emergency medical care.
The border
Sheehy repeatedly blamed Tester and the Biden administration for the increased illegal immigration at the southern border, citing the border crisis for the higher housing costs, increased consumer prices and more.
“Senate Democrats and White House Democrats created this border crisis, we had a secure border four years ago, Donald Trump handed a sealed border to the Biden Harris Administration,” Sheehy said. “Kamala Harris, the border czar, with support from her friends on the hill like Senator Tester and Chuck Schumer opened the border wide open for three years.”
However, Tester sought to distance himself from the Biden administration’s immigration policies, saying “I’ll be the first to tell you President Biden has not done a good job on the southern border.”
He went on to mention the bipartisan compromise bill that Sens. James Lankford (R-OK), Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ), and Chris Murphy (D-CT) and officials from the White House put together in February, but ultimately died due to lack of Republican support after pressure from Trump.
“We had a solution – it was there, it could still be passed,” Tester said. “It could have been passed six or eight months ago, but the bottom line is, Tim, before it was even released to read, said ‘nope, not going to support that’ because his party bosses told him that’s what he needed to do.”
Tester distances himself from Democrats on Israel
As divisions over the Israel-Hamas war continue to fracture the Democratic party, Tester sought to distance himself from calls for a ceasefire and the hard left flank of his party, stating during the debate that Israel should be able to protect itself.
“They were attacked on October 7, coming right up for no reason whatsoever, and so they’re responding,” Tester said. “Do I agree with everything Bibi Netanyahu has done? Absolutely not. But, the truth is, Israel has to be able to protect themselves while the United States looks and helps the world look for a political solution for both of those conflicts.”
Sheehy underscored his military background and blamed the Biden-Harris administration, claiming the disastrous pull out of Afghanistan caused other conflicts in the world.
“That set off a domino chain of weakness that led us to the path of chaos we are on today, from Israel to Ukraine to the Indo Pacific, where we’re seeing China make moves that were unthinkable just 20 years ago,” Sheehy said.
Sheehy takes accountability for derogatory comments about Native Americans, but dodges apologizing
Sheehy took accountability for comments he made last year that were published by Char-Koosta News, the official publication of the Flathead Indian Reservation in late August in which he said Native Americans were “drunk at 8 a.m.” and throwing beer cans at him on the Crow Reservation.
Tester urged Sheehy to apologize during the debate when answering a question about improving Native American life expectancy in Montana.
“That gathering was in a back room of about – I don’t know five dozen people there, but the reality is yeah, it was insensitive,” Sheehy said. “I come from the military, as many of our tribal members do, you know we make insensitive jokes and probably off color sometimes and you know, I’m an adult. I’ll take accountability for that.”
Tester went on to slam Sheehy who has publicly clarified his comments, but has not offered a public apology.
“Tim, the statement you made degrades Native Americans across this country. And you can say, ‘look I’ll take responsibility’, but you know apologies matter and how you treat people matter,” Tester said. “If you treat them with disrespect, other people will disrespect them, so like I said to begin with, you’re a big guy, just apologize.”
Tester attempts to paint Sheehy as an outsider
Tester has continued to draw attention to Sheehy’s status as an outsider to the state of Montana.
In some of his previous races, he’s been successful in depicting opponents as not true Montanans. In 2018, his campaign tried to brand the Baltimore-accented Rosendale as an outsider, slamming his Maryland roots and calling him “Maryland Matt.” In 2012, he highlighted GOP opponent, then-Rep. Denny Rehberg’s lobbyist ties and a 2010 lawsuit he pursued against the Billings Fire Department for the way it handled a wildfire on his land, casting the lawsuit as a slight to firefighters.
“The decision here is stark, you’ve got the opportunity to vote for a guy who’s come to a state a few years back, bought himself a 37,000 acre ranch, which we didn’t even get into, and locked everybody off it – and is changing 12,500 bucks to go hunting on,” Tester said in his closing statement, describing Sheehy. “Or you’ve got someone like me, someone who has been raised within 100 miles of where I was born.”
Sheehy, a former U.S. Navy SEAL and a wealthy businessman, defended his dedication to the state.
“The truth is I wasn’t lucky enough to be born in Montana, I would have loved to have been, I couldn’t control where my mother’s womb was when I crawled out of it, I can’t control where the military sent me for a decade,” he said. “We put down roots here and we started a company, created hundreds of jobs to invest in the betterment of our community.”