Recently, Senator Jon Tester has been attempting to distance himself from Vice President Harris’s presidential bid, having refused to endorse her so far despite her being the presumptive nominee of his party.
Tester is in a political pickle, as he hopes to keep his seat in a state that will likely go to President Trump by 15 plus points in the presidential election. Harris, according to GovTrack, has the second most liberal voting record as a U.S. Senator since the turn of the century, which will not play well in Montana.
Tester serves as one of Montana’s 24 delegates to the Democratic National Convention, which will take place next week in Chicago. According to Montana Public Radio, he has decided to be Montana’s sole Democratic delegate to withhold his vote. According to Punchbowl News, he will also be joining other vulnerable Democratic Senate incumbents Sherrod Brown (OH) and Jacky Rosen (NV) in not attending the Convention.
In a video Scripps News congressional correspondent Nathaniel Reed posted on X after Kamala was made the presumptive nominee, Tester was asked if he would endorse her. His response was “we’re in the middle of the process; it’s not over yet”, while Chuck Schumer offered to “block” journalists from reaching Tester.
This refusal to vote or endorse Kamala Harris is in stark contrast to Senator Tester’s previous history with the Democratic presidential candidate. From 2015-2017, Tester served as the chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. The DSCC is an organization that’s sole purpose is to get Democrats elected to the United States Senate. In his role as chair, Tester personally recruited Kamala Harris in 2015 to run for Senate in California.
In March of last year, the Daily Caller asked Tester if he would support keeping Harris on the ticket with President Biden, to which he replied, “Of course.”
As vice president, Harris holds the responsibility of breaking tied votes in the U.S. Senate, and despite only serving one term so far, she has broken more ties than any other vice president in American history at 33. In every single one of those votes, Jon Tester has voted with Kamala Harris. This includes the “Inflation Reduction Act”, which many economists believe worsened inflation and added 89,000 new IRS agents.
