Why 'the last Democrat standing' in Montana is skipping the DNC

GREAT FALLS — Democrats are bringing new energy to their party convention in Chicago next week. But that enthusiasm isn’t trickling down to a race in one rural state that could decide the balance of power in the U.S. Senate.

In Montana, three-term Senator John Tester is in a tight race against Republican Tim Sheehy, a former Navy SEAL.

Tester has refused to endorse Kamala Harris and his campaign says he won’t be attending the DNC because it’s harvest time and he’s busy on his farm near Big Sandy, Montana. He’s also too busy also for interviews, according to his campaign.

But Tester has a well-established and proven brand in Montana, so maybe it doesn’t matter. The airwaves here are blanketed with ads reminding Montanans that he’s a third generation local, the Senate’s only working farmer, hardly a coastal elite Democrat.

In one video ad, he earnestly addresses the camera, saying, “I’m protecting our freedoms, because Montanans don’t like to be told how to live by anyone, especially the government.”

Backlash against the wealthy

Democrats are also ripping his Republican opponent Tim Sheehy as a wealthy out-of-state transplant with a ranch and resort homes in elite Big Sky and on Flathead Lake.

But in the state capitol, Helena, longtime politicos like columnist George Ochenski question the strategy of going after Sheehy’s wealth, because the electorate admires a successful businessman.

 “The Democrat strategists have been off base for quite a long time now, and now there’s only one Demo statewide seat left, and that’s Jon Tester,” Ochenski says. “And he’s scared. He’s really scared.”

Scared because Donald Trump won Montana by double digits in the last two elections. With Tester not talking, Sheehy got all the headlines the