Tester, 66, hasn’t said whether this will be his last Senate campaign. And while he opposes term limits, he’s aware of how age has affected his fellow senators. Asked about the recent health issues of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., Tester said: “I think it needs to be addressed by the voters.
“I mean, look, the last thing I want to have happen is stay there too long,” Tester said. “I’ve watched it happen too many times in my time in the Senate, and it’s a pitiful thing to watch, where really good people, both sides of the aisle, really, really good people, have stellar careers in public service, really deteriorate to the point where they’re just a shell of what they formerly were. But the voters know that; the voters know that. They can see what I can see.”
Asked whether he had concerns about President Joe Biden’s age, Tester said he believed Biden, 80, is “absolutely 100% with it.”
“He’s doing a good job. I think folks are making a bigger deal out of it than it is,” Tester said. “But, you know, we’ll see what I’m like at 82. I doubt I’ll be running for president.”
Senate Republicans, including Daines, who’s chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, have rallied around businessman Tim Sheehy to take on Tester next year. Sheehy, a former Navy SEAL born in Montana, is already running TV ads in the state hoping to coalesce GOP support to unseat Tester. But Republican Rep. Matt Rosendale, who narrowly lost a challenge to Tester in 2018, hasn’t ruled out a potential rematch, and he appears unfazed by the efforts of his fellow Republicans to clear the field for Sheehy.
“Rep. Rosendale has not made a decision yet and is focused on his priority which is representing the people of Montana,” Aashka Varma, a spokesperson for Rosendale’s campaign, said in a statement. “One thing is for sure, Sen. Tester does not represent Montana, and Montana voters will make their decision over the next few months over who will replace him, not Mitch McConnell and the DC cartel.”
Varma went on to cite a Public Policy Polling survey from June showing Rosendale with a 54-point lead in a primary candidate preference question over Sheehy, who isn’t as well-known statewide, and a February poll that gave him a 5-point lead over Tester.
“Rep. Rosendale is the clear choice among Montana voters. He has their overwhelming trust and support should he decide to run,” Varma said.
Rosendale’s fellow Republicans aren’t so sure. Daines has made it clear he wants Sheehy to take on Tester and Rosendale to run for re-election in the House.
“I really like Matt Rosendale, which is why I am encouraging him to build seniority for the great state of Montana in the House and help Republicans hold their majority,” Daines said in a statement.
Eugene Graf, a land developer from Bozeman and a previous Republican candidate for Congress in Montana, has backed Sheehy for the GOP nomination and says he fears Rosendale’s entering the race could create an expensive “house of cards” for the Republican Party in Montana.
“I think Matt, since his last run for the Senate, has wanted to run for the Senate again,” Graf said. “I think he wants to do the job for Montana in that Senate role, and I don’t think that he would do a bad job. But I think you got to pull back and look at it from the larger view of what’s best for the party, what might be best for the state.”