Tim Sheehy, a businessman and former Navy SEAL, received the Republican main for U.S. Senate in Montana on Tuesday, in keeping with The Related Press, setting him up for a November showdown in opposition to Senator Jon Tester, the Democratic incumbent.
With 27 p.c of the vote counted, Mr. Sheehy had 75.5 p.c, properly forward of his lesser-known opponents. Brad Johnson, Montana’s former secretary of state, had 18 p.c of the vote, and Charles Walkingchild had 6.5 p.c.
The Republican main was primarily a foregone conclusion since February, when Consultant Matt Rosendale abruptly exited the race — lower than every week after he entered it — citing former President Donald J. Trump’s endorsement of Mr. Sheehy. Mr. Rosendale, a right-wing hard-liner, had been seen as the one severe challenger to Mr. Sheehy, for whom the Republican institution had labored to clear the sphere. His victory is a boon for Republicans as they work to recapture management of the Senate, competing on a positive map by which quite a few weak Democrats face powerful re-election battles.
Mr. Sheehy will face a formidable opponent in Mr. Tester, a preferred incumbent who has survived previous challenges in his ruby-red state by leaning on his background as a third-generation Montana farmer and his repute of bipartisanship. Latest polls have prompt a good race, and the nonpartisan Prepare dinner Political Report charges Montana a “tossup.” Mr. Tester formally captured the Democratic nomination on Tuesday.
Mr. Tester has a money benefit; he raised $4.1 million between April 1 and Might 15, in keeping with current monetary filings, and his marketing campaign has $11.7 million money readily available. Mr. Sheehy’s marketing campaign raised $2.1 million in the identical interval — together with $600,000 the candidate lent himself — and had $2.2 million money readily available.
However Republicans imagine Mr. Tester, first elected in 2006, is particularly weak this election. After greater than 17 years in Washington, they assume his rural, working-class narrative has worn skinny with Montanan voters, and argue he has been a dependable vote for legal guidelines signed by President Biden, who’s unpopular with the state’s voters. They plan to pin the border disaster and the rising prices of residing in Montana on Mr. Biden and, by extension, Mr. Tester.
Democrats have countered with assaults on Mr. Sheehy’s biography. As a rich businessman who grew up in Minnesota and moved to Montana a decade in the past, they are saying he epitomizes a development of wealthy transplants shifting to the state and driving up housing costs, which has infuriated longtime residents. (Mr. Sheehy, who runs an aerial firefighting firm and owns a stake in a cattle ranch, made his wealth after shifting to the state.)
They’ve additionally poked holes in his again story, pointing particularly to lingering questions over how he sustained a gunshot wound that he has stated got here from his time in Afghanistan.
