Vulnerable Senate Democrats Lean Into Bipartisanship ― And Bucking Joe Biden

WASHINGTON ― Vulnerable Senate Democrats are highlighting their work with their colleagues across the aisle and touting moments when they bucked President Joe Biden as they seek reelection in November.

In a new ad released this week, Sen. Jon Tester (Mont.), a red state Democrat that Republicans are hoping to oust in the battle for control of the Senate, played up his focus on protecting the U.S.-Mexico border, an issue that has ranked among the top most important problems in Americans’ minds.

“Jon Tester worked with Republicans, fighting to shut down the border, target fentanyl traffickers, and add hundreds of new border patrol agents. And he fought to stop President Biden from letting migrants stay in America,” said the narrator in Tester’s latest campaign ad, referring to his support for measures allowing border authorities to quickly expel migrants.

Tester’s seat is a top priority for Republicans, and with presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump’s popularity in Montana, he could face a very difficult path to reelection. The “flat-topped dirt farmer” is already facing millions of dollars in GOP ads criticizing his record on immigration, and Republicans are hoping to put added pressure on him to support an impeachment trial for Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas next week, which most Democrats have rejected as baseless.

“We just want to set the record straight on what we’ve been doing on the border and not have some crooked goddamn dark money group not exactly telling the truth,” Tester told HuffPost when asked about the motivation behind his latest ad.

Meanwhile, Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, another vulnerable red-state Democrat, also released a new campaign spot this week that