Tim Sheehy defeats Jon Tester in Montana Senate race, says he won because of 'common sense'
Sen.-elect Tim Sheehy, R-Mont., on defeating an incumbent senator and what he hopes to accomplish in the Senate as Republicans regain control
Former U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., linked his 2024 Senate loss to ex-Vice President Kamala Harris’ poor performance in the state.
Tester, who lost to former Navy SEAL Tim Sheehy in that race, declared on HBO’s "Real Time with Bill Maher" that the woke politics embraced by the top of the ticket are what doomed his performance in Montana.
"And the top of the ticket did not perform because I don’t think the top of the ticket embraced the issues that Americans were talking about," he said. "We got wrapped up in all the cancel culture crap."
Former U.S. Senator Jon Tester tells HBO's Bill Maher that ex-Vice President Harris' poor performance in Montana cost him his election.
Tester had served three terms as the Democratic U.S. senator in Montana, which has consistently voted for the Republican presidential candidate for decades.
The ex-senator has taken a more moderate stance on issues during his time in the Senate, openly breaking with the Biden-Harris administration on several issues throughout the years. The Democrat also withheld an endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris after she became the party's nominee.
Both Maher and Tester agreed on the need for the Democratic Party to abandon its far-left leanings and "court the center" as the best way to rebuild and present an alternative to the GOP under Trump.
He said, "Yeah, you go to the place where the people are, and that way those disenfranchised Republicans have a place to land because they don’t think the other party’s crazy."
Tester added, "And if they’re able to do that, and you do that by talking about common sense stuff that people deal with every day."
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Ex- Sen. Jon Tester lost to Tim Sheehy in 2024's U.S. Senate election for Montana. (Getty Images/Sheehy for Senate)
Maher then asked Tester why a more moderate Democratic lawmaker like him couldn’t win his election.
Though he never named her outright, Tester told host Bill Maher that Harris’ progressive stances and own loss in Montana dragged his performance in the state down.
"If you want to know the truth, the top of the ticket lost by what? 30-some points? And the truth is the top of the ticket has to at least be competitive if you’re gonna win in a red state or even a purple state."
In 2024, Donald Trump won Montana by 20 points, 58% to 38%. Sheehy beat Tester by seven points, 52% to 45%.
Fellow guest panelist Alyssa Farah Griffin agreed with Tester’s point that cancel culture sunk the party in Montana, adding that "identity politics" did so as well.
Reps for Harris did not immediately reply to Fox News Digital's request for comment.
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