Control of the US Senate is in play as Montana’s Tester debates his GOP challenger

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — U.S. Sen. Jon Tester of Montana is fighting to hold on to his seat and prevent a Republican takeover of the Senate as the three-term lawmaker faces GOP challenger Tim Sheehy in a Monday night debate.

Tester is the last remaining Democrat to hold high office in Montana and the race is on track to be the most expensive in state history. Republicans party leaders including former President Donald Trump handpicked Sheehy in hopes of toppling Tester, a 68-year-old farmer.

Republicans need to pick up just two seats to take the Senate majority and are widely considered to have a lock on one, in West Virginia.

Sheehy, 38, is a former U.S. Navy SEAL and a wealthy businessman. He’s sought to erode Tester’s longstanding support among moderates by highlighting the lawmaker’s ties to lobbyists. That’s a tactic Tester himself used successfully in his first Senate win in 2006, also against a three-term incumbent.

Tester has attempted to make the race a referendum on reproductive rights for women, closely tying his campaign to a November ballot initiative that would enshrine abortion rights in Montana’s constitution following the overturning of Roe vs. Wade.

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