U.S. Sen. Jon Tester speaks to a crowd of supporters in Bozeman, Montana on Sept. 5, 2024, with Planned Parenthood CEO Alexis McGill Johnson standing to the right. (Photo by Darrell Ehrlick of the Daily Montanan)
BOZEMAN — The leader of America’s most recognizable reproductive rights organization is in Montana campaigning for an initiative to enshrine the right to an abortion in the state constitution, but she has a message for the Treasure State.
“We’re here for freedom so we can decide on abortion, and we want to send Jon Tester back to the Senate so that he can do that for all of us,” said Alexis McGill Johnson, the CEO of Planned Parenthood, calling Tester one of the smartest, sharpest thought-partners in the fight for reproductive freedom. “We are so proud of him, and we know he is an effective bipartisan leader. We’re going to work like hell to send Jon Tester back to the Senate.”
Tester’s race is one of the highest profile races in the country because of the slim margin Democrats have in the U.S. Senate, because the Democratic Senators up for election face a much steeper challenge than Republicans in their respective states, and because Montana’s junior Senator, Steve Daines, is leading the Senate’s re-election efforts for Republicans. Bozeman is also the home of Daines, Tester’s challenger, Tim Sheehy, as well as another state Republican leader, Gov. Greg Gianforte.
On Thursday, supporters of both the ballot issue, Constitutional Initiative 128, and Tester rallied in Bozeman at an event aimed to recruit more volunteers and increase outreach as the three-term incumbent senator has fallen behind in recent polling.
“I’ve never had a wide margin, and we won’t have one in this race either,” Tester said, acknowledging the tight race with just 60 days left before election. “I don’t expect the election to be called on election night, which is going to be fine as long as I win.”
Tester campaign staff held the event in the literal backyard of his opponent. Sheehy is a Bozeman-based businessman who has recently come under fire for several scandals, including characterizing Crow people as “drunk Indians” and amid questions surrounding his business dealings. But at the Thursday night rally, both McGill Johnson and Tester took aim at Sheehy’s comments on reproductive rights.
In a recently released recording, Sheehy called abortion “sinful” and said he wanted it to end “tomorrow.”
The duo of Tester and McGill Johnson told supporters that their two causes, one a race for the U.S. Senate that could decide the balance of power there, and the second, an effort to enshrine the right to an abortion in the Constitution though the procedure is legal in Montana, are tied together. McGill Johnson said if the U.S. wants federal abortion protection, it’s essential to re-elect Tester.
“The road to reproductive freedom runs through the U.S. Senate and runs through Jon Tester,” she said.
She told the crowd of several hundred who were waving Tester signs and wearing signature pink shirts with slogans supporting reproductive freedom and abortion that keeping government out of the doctor’s office is a message that should resonate well in Montana.
“At no point during pregnancy does anyone believe that politicians are more capable of making those decisions than doctors and women,” McGill Johnson said.
She said that women are being put in critical, life-threatening situations because doctors fear prosecution for helping during a miscarriage.
“Providers are so afraid they’ll be jailed that they’re sending women into the parking lot until they get sepsis before they help,” she said. “Make no mistake, they’re coming for IVF, for birth control and for no-fault divorce. This is about power and control.”
Tester tied abortion and freedom together in his remarks.
“If there’s one thing that makes a Montanan a Montanan, it’s freedom. A couple of years ago, Roe was the law of the land. That decision (Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health) was the biggest loss of freedom in my lifetime and yours. It was buh-,” Tester said, pausing for a moment. “Baloney. It was baloney.”