In Montana, Sen. Jon Tester Says Those Underestimating Him 'Don't Know Jack S**t'

GREAT FALLS, Mont. — He defied the odds once, then a second time and a third. Now, Democratic Sen. Jon Tester is hoping to do it again. Now on his fourth try, he’s facing his biggest test yet in a state where, lately, all that seems to matter when election time rolls around is whether you have an “R” next to your name.

As the last statewide-elected Democrat in Montana, Tester is an endangered species. Most of his Democratic friends in the Senate who also hailed from red states have long since been defeated by Republicans or chosen to leave on their own terms (West Virginia’s Sen. Joe Manchin is retiring this year), in yet another sign of the country’s deepening divisions.

Montana has also tilted redder since Tester’s 2018 victory that looked equally insurmountable. The state’s shifting demographics — fueled by an influx of new residents amid the pandemic — Donald Trump’s sky-high popularity, and outsized national attention on the stakes of the race all threaten to spoil the senator’s campaign for a fourth term.

But the “flattopped dirt farmer” from Montana isn’t ready to call it quits, bristling at chatter from political operatives and pundits who believe his luck may have finally run out this year. Clad in his everyman uniform — a flannel shirt, vest and jeans — he turned a question from HuffPost about projections of his seat flipping red into a rallying cry during a campaign stop about an hour drive from his farm on Monday, invoking his inherent Montana-ness.

“The guys in Washington, D.C., they’ve already figured this out. They said, ‘You’re in deep, deep, deep doo-doo,’” Tester told a crowd of a supporters who crammed into his campaign field office in Great Falls, a former Democratic stronghold in northern