Montana, a traditionally red state, values conservative principles and loves President Trump. However, voters will back Democrats if they believe it serves the state’s interests in Washington, D.C. Before voting, Montanans must know that Jon Tester is a divisive leftist who bragged that he “loved” violent, inciting messaging depicting their beloved President Trump dead in front of the White House.

To win crossover votes in a state supporting Trump, Tester portrays himself as a bipartisan moderate aligned with Montana values. In his 2018 victory speech, Tester said: “We need to put aside the political pettiness and work together” on “bipartisan issues.” Tester also portrays himself as a person who puts Montana first. This was the message in his first political ad for his current Senate campaign titled “Big Sandy” in which Tester “vows to protect Montana’s way of life.”

Tester has successfully used this strategy in the past, making him resilient to Republican challenges over the years. If underestimated in 2024, Tester may end up winning reelection, perhaps even ensuring Democrats retain control of the Senate. Despite winning his Senate seat in 2006 by only 3,562 votes, Tester has succeeded against the odds, winning again in 2012 and 2018. His victories are notable given that he is the only Democrat in Montana elected at the federal level since 2010. In 2018, despite President Trump energetically campaigning for his opponent, Tester won by 3.5%, and he still is polling competitively against Republican Tim Sheehy with Trump on the ballot. Tester’s ability to close polling gaps late in the campaign demonstrates that his resilience in this race must not be underestimated, making the upcoming election extremely important.

To push the false narrative that he is not beholden to the Democrat party, Tester’s office recently put out a memo claiming he frequently opposes President Biden. In response, the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) pointed out that Tester has been the deciding vote on every major piece of Biden legislation, providing a partial list supporting their claim.

Tester’s overall voting record is abysmal. According to a report in the Daily Caller from March 2023, “Tester supported President Joe Biden’s position on legislation and nominees more than 99% of the time during the 117th Congress.” Despite his attempts to portray himself as a moderate, the reality is that Tester’s voting record aligns closely with Democrat party positions, and his occasional breaks with the party rarely, if ever, impact the overall outcomes of Senate votes.

Though Tester claims to support border security, he was the deciding vote against a border barrier and border security measures funding bill in 2021 and also killed a 2022 bill to fund border fencing and barriers. Tester endangers Americans by repeatedly voting against border security.

Tester voted against bills in 2019 and in 2020 that would have finally imposed federal criminal penalties on medical personnel for withholding lifesaving care from babies who survive abortions. Tester’s opposition to these bills and his overall voting record demonstrates he is a pro-abortion extremist, who since he became a senator in 2007, has consistently earned a rating of 100% from the far-left NARAL and Planned Parenthood organizations.

While trying to attract Republican voters, Tester does not mention his two votes to impeach President Trump. In 2020, Tester called his vote to impeach Trump a “no brainer” and in 2021 referred to himself as an “impartial juror” who sent “a powerful signal that politicians must be held accountable if we want our democracy to survive.”

Had Montanans known in 2018 about Tester’s true feelings about President Trump, he would have almost certainly lost in a landslide. The most glaring example is Tester’s embrace of an inflammatory election poster designed by Pearl Jam bassist Jeff Ament and sold at his 2018 rally. That poster depicted President Trump dead in front of a burning White House. The 2018 Pearl Jam rally for Tester took place before a sold-out crowd at the Washington-Grizzly stadium, with about 24,000 in attendance, many of whom excitedly bought the incendiary posters. Tester noted that the “the big news” at the event “wasn’t the music; it was the artwork.”

Shortly before the 2020 presidential election, Tester gloated about that infamous poster in his September 2020 book Grounded: A Rural Democrat’s Fight to Unite a Divided America. According to Tester: “As soon as word spread of how wild the posters were, fans stood in line for hours to buy them all up at $35 a pop… And there’s an unmistakable image of me, flying on my tractor above the fire and fury … Though the poster was off message, I didn’t want to admit to her [campaign manager, Christie Roberts] that I actually loved it.”

It is especially worrying that Ament welcomes “all interpretations” of the content of his poster. Despite the controversy surrounding the incendiary poster and a July 2024 assassination attempt on Trump, Ament and Pearl Jam held yet another sold-out concert for Tester on August 22, 2024, drawing an estimated 24,000 attendees at Washington-Grizzly Stadium, where Ament spoke about his 50-year friendship with Tester. At the event, three large screens directed concertgoers to “pledge to vote” and included a QR code directing them to Tester’s reelection campaign phone number.

Tester’s stated admiration over a depiction of President Trump dead in front of a burning White House is beyond being abominable and careless; it is incitement to violence and is downright dangerous. In light of two recent assassination attempts this is particularly evident.

In a 2019 interview, Tester said of Trump, “You need to punch him in the face,” adding to a pattern of normalizing attacks on Trump. This, along with Tester’s admiration of the poster may incite violence against Trump and means that Tester is totally unfit for political office, dangerous, and must be soundly defeated.

A September 2024 Rasmussen poll found that 28% of Democrats believe that America would be “better off if Donald Trump had been killed” during the September assassination attempt, 25% were unsure about this, and only 47% of Democrats believe that America would not be better off. This highlights the great danger that propaganda and incitement pose to President Trump (and to many other Republican leaders). Incitement is not merely words; it can be a tool of warfare. This environment of incitement may have played a role in the mass shooting of Republican congressman on June 14, 2017.

Trump’s landslide Montana victories in 2016 and 2020 and his expected margin of victory of about 15% in 2024 (AARP poll) mean that Tester can only win reelection if enough Trump voters also vote for him. It is therefore essential that Tim Sheehy and Republicans regularly focus on Tester’s endorsement of violent depictions of President Trump, as in the Pearl Jam poster, particularly in light of the assassination attempts on the president. If this story is frequently repeated in the media (television, radio, and print) from now until election day, it is almost certain that Sheehy will win by a substantial margin. However, if Republicans only focus on Tester’s contemptible behavior for one or two days, as was the case in early August when the story broke, then they very well may be snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

Control of the United States Senate election can come down to the Senate election between Tim Sheehy and Jon Tester in Montana. Voters in Montana must reject Tester’s violent rhetoric and vote instead for Tim Sheehy, as a vote for Sheehy is a vote for President Trump, while a vote for Tester only rewards incitement against Trump. To quote from Tester: Montanans must send “a powerful signal” that Tester must be “held accountable if we want our democracy to survive.”

Image: Public domain.