Sensing an opportunity to pick up a seat in the U.S. Senate in 2024, Republicans in Montana are working feverishly to promote a candidate they feel can upset Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) and ice out a far-right House member who has had his eye on the seat.
According to a report from the Bulwark, Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-MT) has already lost to Tester, and senior Republicans in the state and in Washington D.C. don't see him as a viable candidate so they have lined up behind Republican Tim Sheehy, a former Navy SEAL officer. who announced his bid last week.
The Bulwark's Joe Perticone writes that once Sheehy announced, he gained support immediately from Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT), the chair of Republicans’ Senate campaign arm, as well as Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-MT).
The quick endorsements were designed to give Sheehy -- a relative unknown -- a boost in the polls where he is currently trailing Rosendale, who has yet to announce.
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According to the report, "Rosendale has been teasing a repeat run for the Senate despite a prior loss to Tester in 2018. He got elected to the House in the intervening years, and in that chamber, he has become a right-wing bomb thrower and Freedom Caucus–aligned troublemaker."
Pertocone also noted that Sheehy may not catch fire with GOP primary voters which could prompt Rosendale to jump in and that has Republicans concerned.
"Rosendale has already proven he knows how to lose to the Democrat in a high-profile, statewide race, and he’s also taken part in some of the obstructive, hyperpartisan, and unpopular brawls that have plagued Kevin McCarthy’s speakership," the Bulwark is reporting, "It’s hardly the stuff of conspiracies: Montana Republicans have simply recognized the danger of a fringe candidate (Rosendale) who could conceivably win the party’s primary and then lose the (otherwise quite winnable) Senate seat in the general election, and they are attempting to circumvent that outcome by uniting around a consensus candidate."
You can read more here.
