Former President Donald Trump was in Bozeman Friday night to rally his supporters to back Montana’s GOP candidate for the U.S. Senate. The former president paired his trip to the region with several high-dollar fundraising events.
Trump opened his speech in Bozeman lamenting his day of travel. His plane had to land in Billings due a mechanical issue. Then he stopped in Big Sky for a fundraiser before taking the stage at the Montana State University fieldhouse.
“I’ve gotta like Tim Sheehy a lot to be here. He better win. He better win,” Trump said.
U.S. Senate candidate Tim Sheehy is running in a competitive race against incumbent Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Tester. The race is under national scrutiny as it could decide control of the upper chamber.
Sheehy won the Montana GOP’s primary after he was endorsed by Trump. Congressman Matt Rosendale dropped out of the race citing the former president’s decision.
When Sheehy took the stage, he said he’s behind Trump all the way.
“You have a very important job to do. Because if Donald Trump gets to the White House and doesn’t have a Senate, he’s not going to get things done. You need to deliver him a Senate by retiring Jon Tester,” Sheehy said.
Sara Rushing is a political science professor at Montana State University. She says Trump’s desire to beat Tester is what drove him to Montana, even though it’s not a battleground state for the presidency.
Rushing says the Bozeman rally gave Trump the chance to attack Tester while holding fundraisers at the nearby Yellowstone Club and in Jackson Hole with wealthy donors.
“I think he relishes the opportunity to come to a liberal blue bastion, as people pitch Bozeman, and spite Tester,” Rushing said.
Rushing says that theory is supported by Trump’s rally invitation to former White House physician Rear Admiral Ronny Jackson.
Trump nominated Jackson to lead the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs in 2018. Tester raised concerns about allegations over Jackson’s workplace behavior, and Jackson ultimately withdrew as a nominee.
Jackson says the allegations are false. The now congressman told the rally crowd in Bozeman that he’s been waiting six years to “come after” Tester in the senator’s home state.
“We’re going to bring Tim Sheehy to the Senate to replace this swamp hippopotamus, Jon Tester,” Jackson said.
The inspector general for the U.S. Department of Justice in 2021 found allegations about Jackson’s behavior to be credible.
While Trump spent much of his speech bashing Tester, Montana’s senior senator has made it a point on the campaign trail to talk about times the two have agreed on policy.
While Trump visited Montana, Tester released this video of Joseph Hudson. Hudson says he’s a Republican from Helena.
“I don’t agree with everything Jon Tester says or does, but he did get over 20 bills passed during the presidency of Donald Trump …” Hudson said.
Trump is all but guaranteed to carry Montana in the presidential election. It’s the first time he and Tester will share a ballot.
The former president was adamant the two are on opposing sides.
“One of the biggest phonies in American politics – his name is Jon Tester,” Trump said.
On issues, Trump spent the most time at the rally calling for stricter regulations at the southern border and a mass deportation of undocumented immigrants.
How does that compare to what everyday voters are talking about?
It resonates with some, like Gregg Fuller of Bozeman, who attended the Trump rally and says immigration is his top issue this cycle.
“It’s certainly the border, that’s obviously number one,” Fuller said.
An Emerson College poll in March found that immigration falls behind the economy, housing costs and threats to democracy in a ranking of what Montana voters care about.
I met Joe Williams, who recently moved to Bozeman from Georgia, outside of Walmart. He works in construction in Gallatin Gateway and says the cost-of-living is too high. He plans to vote for Trump.
“When he was in the presidency, he did a couple of things for us, putting money back in people’s hands and creating jobs,” Williams said.
Trump said at a recent press conference that he doesn’t think abortion is an important issue this election cycle, but Annette Stenger of Belgrade disagrees. She helped organize a reproductive rights rally at the Bozeman library ahead of Trump’s arrival. She says the issue could sway undecided voters.
“Reproductive rights and everything that surrounds that is a bigger concern than people realize, even from the Republican side, because we think that there are also a lot of Republicans who are concerned about that as well,” Stenger said.
It’ll become clear in November whose political calculations are correct.
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