U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton addresses the crowd at a meet-and-greet event in support of Tim Sheehy at the Northern Hotel in Billings on September 4, 2024 (photo by Evan Hood)
As we inch closer and closer to the election in November, the stakes continue to rise. With possibly the most important statewide election in the country right here, both parties continue to throw everything they have at Montana’s U.S. Senate race between Jon Tester and Tim Sheehy.
U.S. Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) joins what has become a long list of Republicans in the federal government coming to Montana in the last few months, including Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA), Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA), Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-TX), and of course former President Donald Trump.
Senator Cotton joined alongside Senate candidate Tim Sheehy for a breakfast and meet-and-greet on the morning of Wednesday, September 4 at the Northern Hotel in Billings. Introduced by Chair of the Yellowstone County Republican Central Committee Pam Purinton, both men addressed the crowd of around 150-200 people. The main sentiment can be summarized in a quote from Sheehy, “money fuels elections, but votes win them.”
Both men urged the crowd to reach out to a handful of people who may be on the fence about voting or about which candidate they support and simply explain why they support Sheehy over Tester.
Senator Cotton spoke to the idea of a “two-faced” Jon Tester. He argued that Jon Tester is not the moderate, Montana focused legislator he claims to be, but rather a rubber stamp for Chuck Schumer, who is occasionally allowed to vote against Democrats when Schumer determines his vote to not be necessary. He pointed out that Tester voted against Trump’s 2017 tax cuts and all three of his SCOTUS nominations, and voted for multiple trillion-dollar spending bills that may have increased inflation.
Cotton closed by exclaiming that as we get closer to the election, the outcome of the race is “less in Tim’s hands and more in [voter]’s hands”. He asked the crowd to talk to their family, neighbors, and church members about why they support Sheehy.
Sheehy used his time to explain how he differs from the “Shady Sheehy” caricature that Tester’s campaign ads have portrayed. He scoffed at Tester ads calling him “anti-veteran”, as he is a combat veteran himself, as a Navy SEAL, and married to a Marine Corps veteran. Sheehy cited poor care for veterans by the VA while also pointing out that Jon Tester is the Chair of the Senate VA Committee, suggesting that, in fact, it is Tester who has let down veterans. He promised to keep “public lands in public hands”, but said he differed from Tester in that he wanted control of public lands to be held by the public, not “environmentalists” and “bureaucrats thousands of miles away.” He also pointed out the absurdity of the claim he is anti-public lands while his aerial fire-fighting company is focused on protecting public lands. He also argued he was not for closing hospitals, but rather increasing access to medical care in rural communities, and cited a $4 million donation he and his wife made in 2021 to Bozeman Health to fund an expanded pediatric care unit.
Sheehy said, “the best thing [people] can do for his campaign” is “talk to 10 or 20 people”.
