Montana might not be a battleground state for November's presidential election — Donald Trump carried it by 16.37 percentage points in 2020 and by nearly 21 in 2016 — but it sure could decide which party gains control of the Senate.
Trump was in Big Sky Country on Friday night to campaign for former Navy SEAL Tim Sheehy, who is trying to oust three-term Sen. Jon Tester, a Democrat anomaly in a deep-red state. Trump campaigned to oust Tester in 2018, but Tester narrowly defeated Matt Rosendale by 17,913 votes.
"We are going to defeat radical-left Democrat John Tester," Trump said in front of a capacity crowd at the Brick Breen Fieldhouse in Bozeman on the campus of Montana State University. "He's terrible. And send Tim Sheehy to the United States Senate."
Sheehy has been surging ahead of Tester in recent polls, although the Cook Political Report calls the race a toss-up. An Emerson College poll released Thursday showed Sheehy ahead 48%-46%, and a poll released July 10 by American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers had Sheehy ahead 50%-45%.
Trump said come election time, Tester tries to shy away from his liberal voting record and project himself as someone who sides with him.
"Everyone thinks, like, he's my best friend," Trump said during the rally, which aired live on Newsmax and simulcast on the Newsmax2 online streaming platform.
"He's never voted for me once. And yet his commercial is, 'I like Donald Trump very much. I love his border stance.' He votes against the border. He voted against funding of the border.
"He said, 'I love his stance on energy.' He voted against our energy programs," he continued.
"He votes against us 100%. He's voted in favor of Crooked Joe Biden 100% of the time. He did it last time with the election. We had the same problem. Do you remember?
"He comes out everyone saying he really likes your policy a lot. He doesn't like it. He's a radical-left lunatic, just like Kamala [Harris]. And we've got to elect Tim. We've got to get him in," Trump said.
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Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
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