Former Navy SEAL Tim Sheehy, a businessman and former senator from Montana, defeated Jon Tester (D), a third-term senator. This victory expands the Republican Senate majority that will take over next.

Sheehy won after Bernie Moreno, a businessman, defeated veteran Senator Sherrod Brown in Ohio. This gave Republicans a minimum of 52 seats in the Senate, depending on what happens in Michigan, Nevada Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Sheehy led Tester for weeks in polls in a state that former President Trump won both in 2016 and in 2020. Sheehy is expected to win this year again by double-digits.

Montana was seen by many as the best opportunity for Republicans to pick up seats outside of West Virginia. Sheehy’s projected win will likely give the GOP at least 52 Senate Seats, with Sen. Deb Fisher (R) winning in Nebraska, and Sen. Ted Cruz in Texas, re-election bids.

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The Republicans won the seat of retiring Senator Joe Manchin (I-W.Va.), when Gov. Jim Justice (R), who defeated Glenn Elliott, a little-known Democratic candidate, has won the seat of retiring Sen. Joe Manchin.

In the last weeks of the Montana Senate race, Tester and his Democratic supporters raised questions over Sheehy’s claim that he had been shot in a battle in Afghanistan in 2012. Sheehy’s explanation of how the bullet became lodged in his left arm was undermined when it was revealed earlier this year that Sheehy told a ranger he shot himself accidentally in a Glacier National Park lot in 2015.

At the end of the election campaign, Tester and Senate Majority PAC (a Democratic super PAC) launched ads that questioned Sheehy’s integrity and injury.

Democrats also raised concerns about his financing of an aerial firefighting company with $160,000,000 in municipal bonds, after a significant portion of that money was given to Blackstone Group in New York.

Tester, on the other hand, highlighted his roots as a “third-generation dirt farm from Big Sandy,” at one point in his campaign, making a joke that his farm equipment has been in Montana for longer than his opponent who is originally from Minnesota.

The Democrat tried to distance himself throughout the campaign from the Biden and Harris administration, interrogating Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in a Senate hearing about the failure of the administration to secure the U.S. Mexico border.

It wasn’t quite enough to defeat what was expected to be an overwhelming victory for Trump at the top of ticket over Vice President Harris.

Sheehy, along with Republican groups, attacked Tester for accepting contributions from lobbyists throughout the campaign. They made sure to show voters that he had been one of the largest recipients of lobbyist money in D.C.

The same people also linked Tester with Harris’ “radical” policy.

Sheehy is a Navy SEAL with an impressive record. He served in Iraq and Afghanistan, earning the Bronze Star for valor when he carried an injured comrade from enemy fire and a Purple Heart after being injured by a improvised explosive devices explosion.

In 2014, he founded Bridger Aerospace and claimed to have created over 200 jobs in Montana. He owns a 20,000-acre cattle ranch.

Sheehy is one of the top recruits for the 2024 election cycle. Sheehy was one of Steve Daines’s (R-Mont.) top recruits for 2024.

Daines pulled off a coup when he convinced Trump to endorse Sheehy back in February. This paved the way for Daines to win the Republican nod and effectively eliminate conservative Rep. Matt Rosendale. Tester, who lost in 2018, wanted to rematch.

Tester had won close races before. In his first Senate campaign, Tester won with 49.16 % of the votes. He beat incumbent Republican Sen. Conrad Burns. In 2006, the Democrats won a large number of votes during the second term of President George W. Bush.

Tester narrowly defeated Rosendale in 2018. The Republican legislator was viewed as weak due to his extreme right views, the fact that he was born and raised in Baltimore, and had graduated from the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Tester won the race by 3.5 percentage points.

Senate Majority leader Chuck Schumer (D.Y.) along with the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee remained committed to Tester, despite Washington’s growing doubts that he would win in an area where Trump was expected to win by nearly 20 points.

According to the Montana Free Press, Democratic groups spent $48,1 million against Sheehy and Republican groups $51,1 million against Tester by mid-October.