Who Is Winning Montana Senate Race? Jon Tester vs. Tim Sheehy Updates

Democratic Senator Jon Tester of Montana and Republican Tim Sheehy are locked in a tight election battle.

The Montana Senate contest was seen as one of the toughest for Democrats in the 2024 election, with Tester running for reelection in a deep-red state that went for Donald Trump by double-digit margins in 2016 and 2020. While Tester previously won reelection in 2018 during the Trump era, this was the first election where the Democrat shared the ballot with the former president.

With 29 percent of the votes counted, Sheehy was leading Tester with 50 percent of the vote, according to projections from NBC News.

Polls consistently showed Sheehy narrowly ahead, or the two candidates roughly tied, and many analysts viewed the race as one of the GOP's best pickup opportunities this election cycle. As the Democrats only narrowly control the Senate in a 51-49 majority, the race has been closely monitored as one that was expected to help determine which party will control the legislative chamber.

More than $269 million was spent on the race, according to mid-October campaign finance filings reported by the nonprofit Open Secrets. That far surpassed the previous record spending of $160 million set by the same point in 2020, when Montana's former Democratic Governor Steve Bullock unsuccessfully attempted to unseat Republican Senator Steve Daines. The 2024 contest also ranks as the third-most expensive Senate race this cycle, behind Ohio and Pennsylvania, respectively.

Tester, a third-generation Montana farmer, had been seen as able to connect with rural and often conservative-leaning voters, despite the D next to his name. During the race, he played up his farming background as a critical part of his message to voters while also creating distance between himself and national Democrats. Tester declined to endorse Kamala Harris for president and did not attend August's Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

Nonetheless, Sheehy, a Navy SEAL veteran and an entrepreneur, throughout the campaign highlighted Tester's voting record, pointing out that the Democratic senator had voted with President Joe Biden over 90 percent of the time. Sheehy dubbed his opponent "two-faced Tester."

Tester, in return, attempted to paint his Republican opponent as a carpetbagger who had only recently relocated to the state. Sheehy moved to Montana in 2014.

The Republican also faced criticism for his shifting account of a shooting injury, which was first reported by The Washington Post. On the campaign trail, Sheehy said he was injured in a firefight during his time in Afghanistan, but he told a park ranger at Montana's Glacier National Park in 2015 that he'd shot himself by accident. Most recently, his lawyers have said he lied about the shooting to prevent an investigation.