U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, D-Montana, speaks to a crowd of supporters in Helena on Nov. 4, 2024, a day before the 2024 election. (Photo by Blair Miller, Daily Montanan)
Jon Tester worked as a farmer long before he worked as a U.S. Senator, and this year, he’s set to ramp up work on the family farm.
That’s one sure thing the Democrat from Big Sandy knows about the immediate future. Last year, he said, he and his wife, Sharla Tester, raised white wheat, red wheat, peas and hay.
They raised lentils before, but those take more time, he said, and until recently, time has been in short supply.
During the last 18 years, Tester worked double duty, farming and legislating, getting up at 2:30 a.m., on Mondays for the transition, a drive to Great Falls, a flight to Washington, D.C. — a feat even Republican U.S. Sen. Steve Daines took note of in his farewell message to Tester.
Daines tapped newcomer and fellow Bozeman businessman Tim Sheehy as the candidate to oust Tester, and this month, the successful Republican rival took his oath of office.
Meanwhile, Tester talked about what’s ahead.
“Maybe I’ll play around with lentils again,” Tester said.
Certainly, farm work is top of his list, but he’s considered campaign finance reform a priority, and he’ll consider opportunities on that front, as well as others, including possible chances to teach.
Hindsight is 20-20
Tester lost his bid for a fourth term in the Senate despite outperforming Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris by 13 points in Montana. He said it was a tough cycle for Democrats, and he feels sad to lose his staffers.
But he also sees his loss in November as one for Montanans, not himself personally.
After rising in the ranks, Tester served as chairman of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee and Veterans Affairs Committee, and influential people such as military contractors valued his opinion — “because they had to.”
“I think it’s a missed opportunity, but not for me. I think it’s a missed opportunity for the state,” Tester said.
Hindsight is 20-20, he said, but he doesn’t see much he could have done differently. On the campaign trail, he stayed true to himself and his Montana roots, and he said voters picked the person they thought would do the job best.
“That’s the way the process is supposed to work,” Tester said.
In 2006, Tester himself ousted incumbent U.S. Sen. Conrad Burns in the Republican’s bid for a fourth term. In Tester’s book, “Grounded,” he said Burns, now deceased, conceded the race to him with a joke, telling his opponent he “slept like a baby” — “I woke up every hour and cried.”
Focus on the farm
Although Tester sees his loss as one for the Treasure State, he’s far from bawling about it for himself. He said the change brings him some relief personally, a return to a more sensible pace of life, more quality of life, a step back from a schedule so jam packed he hardly had time to breathe.
“I can really focus on the farm,” he said. “There’s a lot of things on the farm that we didn’t do because I was involved and just didn’t have the time to do then. Now, we’re going to have time, hopefully.”
He’ll roll up barbed wire out the field and paint the barn, and he said generally, he wants to focus on agriculture and making sure the farm his grandfather homesteaded is in good shape for the next generation.
He said he kept on farming while in office partly because the country’s forefathers expected it of their leaders, just like Montana has citizen legislators. He wanted to lead by example, he said, but he has another simple reason, too.
“I love doing it,” he said.
Never say never
More work in politics isn’t out of the question for Tester — “you never say never on anything.” If someone needs help on policies related to rural America or infrastructure or education, he’ll be happy to give his “two bits.”
Tester, also a former elementary school music teacher, school board member, and president of the Montana Senate in the state legislature, has said campaign finance reform is the most urgent issue for democracy. He believes too much money is spent on campaigns, and he doesn’t believe it’s good for the country.
“That is going to be something that I’m very interested in doing because I think it has a negative impact on our country,” Tester said.
His Senate race, of course, was a prime example of big money in politics.
In the 2024 cycle, Open Secrets ranked Montana as second in the U.S. for money spent on a Senate race by candidates and outside groups, at more than $288 million. (Ohio was No. 1, at more than $449 million.)
“It was almost voter abuse, the number of ads that were on TV,” Tester said. “Hell, I didn’t know who was paying for the ads (by outside groups).”
It’s money that could go to books for school children or rural broadband, he said.
Democrats should tout wins
This year, Montana will send an all GOP congressional delegation to Washington, D.C., and Republicans control the House and the Senate.
Republican Donald Trump took the White House again, but Tester said he believes Democrats still can win in the future. One way to do it is to point to their wins for the American people, he said, such as the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
He said that means ensuring rural Americans know the outcome brings real dollars not just for subway travel in New York City, but for things like pothole repairs and bridge fixes in Montana.
A March 2024 fact sheet from the White House said the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law will send $5.3 billion to Montana, and 504 projects already had been identified for funding, including for transportation and water.
The state takes credit for it, and some people underplayed it, Tester said. “‘This is just a puny little bill,’” he said was the way some people described it. “(But) it was a huge win for the American people.”
Tester talked with the Daily Montanan about his future the day before Sheehy took his oath of office. He said he was prevented from making any agreements until then, but once the embargo lifted, he would start making more plans.
“After tomorrow, (I’ll) put some flies on the water and see what kind of people come along,” Tester said.