Veteran Tim Sheehy Ousts Democrat Sen. Jon Tester In Montana

Montana Republican Tim Sheehy, a Navy SEAL veteran, has unseated long-time Democrat Sen. Jon Tester.

Sheehy won 53 percent of the vote to Tester’s 45 percent, according to The New York Times, with 93 percent of the votes in at the time of publication. Tester served three terms since 2007.

“We the people made our voices heard, we completed our mission, and now we will secure our children’s future and save America together,” Sheehy posted to X on Wednesday. 

Former President Donald Trump, who just won the first nonconsecutive reelection since President Grover Cleveland, endorsed Sheehy as an “American hero” in February, according to Fox News. Prominent Republican senators, including Marco Rubio of Florida, Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, and Tom Cotton of Arkansas, also backed Sheehy’s bid for the seat.

Sheehy also got support from the Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America Candidate Fund in January, the organization noted in a Wednesday press release. The group celebrated his victory, saying pro-life canvassers made more than 114,000 visits across Montana this election.

“We congratulate Senator-elect Tim Sheehy and look forward to working together to protect children before birth and help moms,” said SBA Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser in the release. “Montanans aren’t on board with the Harris-Tester agenda of painful late-term abortions of healthy babies with healthy moms.”

Tester seemed confident about his chances on Election Night, saying “we’ll have won” thanks to his supporters.

Tester accused Sheehy of lying about a combat wound throughout the campaign, according to ABC News — never mind Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate Tim Walz dodging deployment and lying about his military record. 

Since Tester first won election to the Senate in 2006, Montana has become more conservative, according to ABC News. While it used to elect a mixture of Republicans and Democrats, it has tended strongly toward Republicans in recent years, giving the party a supermajority in the state legislature.

Logan Washburn is a staff writer covering election integrity. He graduated from Hillsdale College, served as Christopher Rufo’s editorial assistant, and has bylines in The Wall Street Journal, The Tennessean, and The Daily Caller. Logan is originally from Central Oregon but now lives in rural Michigan.