Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Tester and Republican Senate candidate Tim Sheehy. (Photos viaJennifer Shutt, States Newsroom and Sheehy campaign)
In what was the final U.S. Senate debate in Montana before voters can start casting their ballots in the November election, Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Tester and his Republican challenger Tim Sheehy sparred over issues like the economy, housing costs, abortion, immigration, public lands, and Native communities Monday night prompted by questions from two Montana PBS hosts in Missoula.
The debate between the top two contenders for the seat – Libertarian Sid Daoud and the Green Party’s Robert Barb were not invited because of the outlet’s rules – featured a mixture of both men highlighting their policy positions while also attacking the other’s. It contained brief moments of agreement, and sharp jabs at certain statements or policy positions each has taken on various subjects that have blanketed Montana’s airwaves and social media in advertisements for months.
Tester repeatedly highlighted Sheehy’s wealth and said it was millionaires moving into Montana, like Sheehy did, who are raising housing prices and threatening public lands here. Sheehy countered by noting that OpenSecrets has found Tester had received more lobbyist cash than any other candidate this cycle.
Tim Sheehy and U.S. Sen. Jon Tester participated in a debate on Sept. 30, 2024, hosted by Montana PBS. (Screenshot courtesy Montana PBS)
Tester pressed Sheehy to address the racist comments he was heard on tape making at two different campaign events about the Crow Tribe, first reported by the Char-Koosta News.
Sheehy admitted to making “insensitive jokes” that were “off color.”
“I’m an adult; I’ll take accountability for that. But let’s not distract from the issues that our tribal communities are suffering,” Sheehy said.
But Tester pushed him on the issue and said Sheehy should outright apologize.
“The statement you made degrades Native Americans across this country. And you can say, ‘Look, I’ll take responsibility.’ But apologies matter, and how you treat people matter. And if you treat them with disrespect, other people will disrespect them. So, like I said to begin with, you’re a big guy. Just apologize,” Tester said.
Sheehy, who previously and falsely claimed the tapes were altered, responded by asking Tester if he’d apologize for “opening the border,” to which Tester responded that he did not, and that he voted for the bipartisan border security bill earlier this year that Republicans tanked on former President Donald Trump’s orders.
In their closing statements, Tester said the decision for voters came down to one between a wealthy relative newcomer who wants to restrict Montanans freedoms and one who doesn’t, while Sheehy said Montana needs fresh leadership from a senator who did not vote to convict Trump following his impeachment and who has largely supported the Democratic agenda. He also said the attacks on him coming from Minnesota were misplaced.
“Truth is, I wasn’t lucky enough to be born in Montana. I sure would have loved to have been. Couldn’t control where my mother’s womb was when I crawled out of it,” he said.
The hour-long debate will be the last head-to-head debate between Tester and Sheehy before absentee ballots are mailed to voters on Oct. 11. The contest is one of the most closely watched in the U.S., as it is key to which party controls the Senate following the election, and polls have recently shown the race neck-and-neck, and Sheehy with a slight lead as he tries to unseat the three-term Democratic senator.
Housing affordability
The first question from the moderators was what the root of Montana’s housing problem is and what, if anything, the government should do to influence the market.
Sheehy talked about high interest rates and inflation – both of which have been falling this year – and difficulty getting homes insured. But he also said the influx of immigrants is partly to blame, claiming they have bought up homes and are contributing to the strain on the housing market.
He also said that regulations have slowed construction, there should be incentives to increase growth out of metropolitan areas of Montana, and that more skilled laborers would be needed to cut timber and build homes.
Tester blamed “people who have hundreds of millions” of dollars and hedge funds for coming into Montana, particularly since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, and buying up houses and property. He pointed to bills he’s offering or supporting including a $15,000 first-time homebuyer tax credit, one to keep hedge funds from buying homes, and tax credits to encourage more private-sector building.
He said it was a “circular” issue, as lower-wage workers and those in the trades are facing increasingly high housing costs themselves, and that if incentives don’t exist to build more houses that are affordable for first-time buyers, the problem will continue.
Abortion
Tester said multiple times that he believes women need to make their own healthcare decisions, and he wants to see protections that existed under Roe vs. Wade reinstated. He said Sheehy “feels more entitled” to make those decisions than the women themselves. Tester said he supports Constitutional Initiative 128, which aims to enshrine abortion protections in the Montana Constitution.
“Tim Sheehy has called abortion terrible and murder. That doesn’t sound to me like he’s supporting the woman to make that decision,” he said. “The fact of the matter is that this is fundamental to who were are as Montanans.”
Sheehy said he would respect CI-128 as “law of the land” if voters approve it in November, but also said Democrats have been pushing “the most extreme abortion initiative in the world.” He said he supports exceptions for instances of rape and incest and if an abortion is needed to protect the mother’s life.
“But the reality is, at some point, we have to protect the life of the child. They could be the next Albert Einstein, the next Michael Jordan, the next Jon Tester, for all we know. That life also deserves to be protected, and I’ll do that,” he said.
Sheehy also again repeated the false claim that Democrats were supporting women getting abortions “up to and including the moment of birth.”
Tester responded that the “born alive” abortions Sheehy and other Republicans have mentioned do not occur and said Sheehy was lying.
“You’re saying it to try to politicize this issue more than it already is,” Tester said.
Public lands
Sheehy said public lands belong to the people, but he wants ranchers, farmers and other locals to have “more input” on how they are managed and who manages them. He said Washington bureaucrats and environmental groups that have sued over projects on public lands were to blame for poor federal land management.
Tester said public lands are what make Montana the “Last Best Place,” employ hundreds of Montanans and bring in billions to the state each year. He brought up that Sheehy had not disclosed previously serving on the board of the Property and Environment Research Center, a “free market environmentalism” think tank in Bozeman whose former executive director previously wrote that he wanted to auction off all public lands.
Tester said Sheehy wanted to turn public lands over to counties and to his “rich friends” so they could buy them. The Montana GOP platform for 2024 says that the party wants all federal lands to be relinquished back to the states.
Sheehy defended PERC, saying it advocated for better public management of services on federal lands. Tester sniped back at him by noting Sheehy’s campaign had removed a PERC logo from a photo of Sheehy in a digital advertisement when the mailer includes the logo on his shirt.
Tester said people should watch what people say in back rooms and not in public, hinting that Sheehy was hiding his true motives, while Sheehy fired back, saying Tester was “eating lobbyist steaks” while Sheehy was out firefighting on public lands. Tester defended himself, saying he is one of the most transparent senators and noting that Sheehy had set up a lobbying firm to try to influence officials to favor his aerial firefighting company Bridger Aerospace.
Health care
The moderators asked the candidates about the best health care delivery system for seniors. Tester said he was committed to ensuring Medicare and Medicare Advantage plans were “solvent for generations.” He pointed to the Inflation Reduction Act that he supported, which allowed the government to negotiate prescription drug prices and implemented a cap on insulin costs.
Sheehy said the government has a “role to play” in health care, said he was opposed to any single-payer programs, and that increasing private health care would be more beneficial than getting the government more involved.
Tester said Sheehy wanted “pure privatization” of the health care industry and the dismantling of Indian Health Services and the Department of Veterans Affairs. He said pulling the government out of health care entirely would “destroy” the health care system in America.
Sheehy said the VA was “failing” within its bureaucracy to adequately cover veterans’ needs and said the private sector would make health care “better, faster, and cheaper.”
The southern border and fentanyl
The candidates’ discussion on the southern border started with a question about fentanyl and how to keep it out of the country when it is primarily coming in with legal U.S. citizens hired as mules by cartels in Mexico.
Sheehy blamed the influx of illegal and legal immigrants, claiming violent criminals were coming to the country to the tune of thousands and having a “devastating impact.” He blamed Democrats for immigration, claiming that Trump had “handed a sealed border” to the Biden administration and Democrats had kept the border “wide open” during the past three years.
Tester again pointed at the bipartisan border security bill that Republicans killed at Trump’s request, saying it would have added thousands of agents and troops on the border, X-ray machines that could detect fentanyl going through ports of entry and would have tightened asylum laws.
“Tim Sheehy said he wouldn’t vote for that bill even before it was out to be read,” Tester said.
Sheehy accused Tester of using the border issue as a political pawn during the election cycle. Tester said he acknowledged Biden “did not do a good job” on several parts of the border issue, but again said Sheehy had taken the stance on the bipartisan bill from the “party bosses” before he even knew what was in it.
Foreign policy
Tester said the U.S. needs to continue to be the world’s economic and military leader and that its democratic allies need to continue to be able to depend on it for support. He said while the U.S. has committed “a lot” of money toward Ukraine’s effort to fight of Russia’s invasion, he believes Russian President Vladimir Putin will try to invade Poland and other parts of Europe if he is successful in Ukraine.
He also said that Israel needs to be able to protect itself. But he also distanced himself slightly from Israel’s actions against Palestinians.
“Do I agree with everything that Bib Netanyahu has done? Absolutely not. But the truth is, Israel has to be able to protect themselves while the United States looks and helps the world look for a political solution for both of those conflicts,” Tester said.
Sheehy blamed the American pullout from Afghanistan, which he has said contributed greatly to his decision to run in the race, saying it had caused a “domino chain of weakness” that has led to the increased conflicts and instigation among Russia and China in particular.
He said he supports Israel “one thousand percent” and wants Ukraine to win the war, but added that he believes Europe should start footing more of the bill for weapons and other war tools NATO is providing to Ukraine. Sheehy also said the military needed larger investments despite Congress passing the largest ever defense funding bills over the past two years.
“It’s about time we reorient our military, we stand strong, and protect our interests on the world stage.”
Indian Country
Sheehy said he believes there needs to be more infrastructure development in Montana’s tribal communities and more funding for public safety officers and health care operations. Tester said America needs to make sure it’s living up to its trust responsibilities with the tribes, said tribal members need better housing, health care, schools, and infrastructure, and let the tribes “drive the bus” in terms of what funding they receive.
The discussion eventually went back to the border and fentanyl before Tester stepped in and said if Sheehy felt so strongly about helping Native communities, he should apologize for his statements he made about “drunk Indians” on the Crow Reservation, leading to perhaps the fieriest moment of the night, but at the end, no apology.