Though Montana is a northern state that shares a border with Canada, issues surrounding the southern U.S. border with Mexico have dominated messaging in the stateās U.S. Senate race so far.
For Republican challenger Tim Sheehy, itās about an alliance with former President DonaldĀ Trump and calling for the finishing of his border wall. Like Republicans up and down the ballot in Montana and nationally, Sheehyās focused on it as a top issue.
Itās also an opportunity to tie who Sheehy's trying to unseat, incumbent Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, to President Joe Biden. The president only captured 40% of the vote in Montana in 2020, and Biden's border policies have led to what the GOP nationally has branded a crisis.
Testerās messaging has worked to distance himself from the president, as well as show heās aiming to hold the administrationās feet to the fire, something he navigated Wednesday while voting against the impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
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The Senate race in Montana is one of the closest-watched in the nation and could determine control of the chamber. Already the campaigns and outside groups have spent millions on ads and reserving airtime through the fall.
Montanans who turned on a television recently have likely seen an ad from One Nation, a dark money group that engages in issue advocacy. The group, which has ties to the Senate Leadership Fund, has made $15 million in ad reservations through late summer and has an ad up now critical of Tester for supporting āBidenās border disaster.ā
Biden's administration has seen record numbers of migrants encounter U.S. Border Patrol agents, and such encounters have surged since the start of the pandemic in 2020.Ā
The One Nation ad works to link Tester to Biden on the border and make Tester appear waffly on his stances.
One of the opening clips of the ad is from a 2006 debate with former Republican Sen. Conrad Burns, the cycle when Tester first successfully ran for U.S. Senate. In the clip, Tester said that he was opposed to āamnestyā for āillegal immigrants.ā The ad then claims that Tester later voted to grant amnesty to 11 million immigrants and that some of them were āconvicted criminals.ā
Here are the facts: Tester voted in favor of a 2013 bill that would have allowed the 11 million immigrants lacking permanent legal status in the U.S. at the time to apply to become a lawful permanent resident. The bill excluded those who were convicted of a felony or had committed three or more misdemeanors. So if someone was convicted of a singular misdemeanor, they could be eligible to apply at the time.
The āroll call vote #159, 6/20/13ā that flashes on the screen references a vote that Tester took in favor of killing an amendment to the bill. The amendment sought to create a number of major changes, including prohibiting āillegal aliens convicted of serious misdemeanors, such as domestic violence, aggravated assault, child abuse, violation of a protection order, and drunk drivingā from receiving lawful resident status, according to reporting at the time.
This is not the first time One Nation has accused a candidate of flip-flopping on āamnestyā for immigrants and used this 2013 amendment as evidence. In 2018, One Nation ran a similar ad and cited the same roll call vote from June 2013 as the supporting evidence.
The ad then moves onto the border wall and claims that Tester voted āto let President Biden stop building Trumpās wall.ā
The votes cited on screen are referencing votes Tester took against an attempt to tie border wall funding to the major 2021 bipartisan infrastructure bill, a congressional resolution and a bill meant to combat Chinaās growing influence.
The amendments would have barred Biden from canceling Trump-era border construction contracts and Tester voted against that prohibition.
When languageĀ ā particularly language on hot-button issues ā that is not directly related to the topic of the legislation is inserted into the bill, it can often risk the billās success.Ā
Likewise, Tester rejected a 2022 attempt to tie border wall funding to the Inflation Reduction Act. That said, Tester has also voted for a number of spending packages that included funding for border wall construction.
As for the sanctuary city claim, Tester has voted in opposition to multiple bills that would work against sanctuary cities, including some provisions that would allow federal law enforcement (like U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) from being able to work with local law enforcement to detain migrants.
"Sen. Tester opposes sanctuary cities and believes allowing anyone to enter the country without proper vetting or going through a legal process undermines our national security,ā Sarah Feldman, communications director for the senator, said in a statement for this story, adding that there were other policies in those bills that the senator disagreed with.
As the One Nation ad went on airwaves, so did a spot from Testerās campaign that works to show where the Democrat differs from his partyās leadership when it comes to the border, which recent polling shows is ranked the second-most critical issue potential voters say Montana is facing. Filings Testerās campaign made with TV stations described the ad as "Jon Tester has worked with Republicans to secure the southern border." His campaign recently made a $14.5 million ad reservation, according to Ad Impact.
Testerās campaign ad makes a number of broad claims about his record on the southern border, particularly about his work with Republicans on the issue. Fentanyl deaths in Montana is what Tester has cited in recent months to push his border agendas. The ad specifically says that Tester "worked with Republicansā to ātarget fentanyl traffickers.ā
Tester was one of 68 cosponsors on a bill that targets multiple levels of the fentanyl supply chain by imposing sanctions on foreign criminal organizations and would declare the international trafficking of fentanyl a national emergency. The bill was incorporated into a larger national security package which ultimately passed the Senate.
The spot also says that Tester āfought to stop President Biden from letting migrants stay in America instead of remain in Mexico.ā
āRemain in Mexicoā is in part a reference to a policy known as Title 42, a Trump-era policy made possible by theĀ pandemic public health emergency that allows U.S. officials to turn away migrants who came to the southern border on the grounds of preventing the spread of COVID-19.
Tester has cosponsored multiple bipartisan bills from roughly a year ago, one that would have maintained provisions similar to those of Title 42 for two more years and one that sought to extend the Title 42 sunset date by 60 days.
āI oppose the Biden administration's plan to end Title 42 this week without a real plan in place, for the strain that will put on an already broken immigration system,ā Tester said in a video statement in May of last year.
The ad then claims that Tester āworked with Republicansā to āadd hundreds of new border patrol agents.ā
Like many other Democrats, Tester was a staunch advocate of the major border security bill earlier this year that would have indeed added āhundredsā more border patrol agents. That bill was killed after Trump criticized it and Republicans backed the former president.Ā
In 2023, Tester voted against restarting some border wall construction, adding border patrol agents, funneling money toward drug detection and reinstating a āRemain in Mexicoā policy. Those provisions came in a hefty amendment to the debt ceiling relief package. The amendment language was pulled from HR 2, which was a far-reaching border security bill the House passed that pulls from Trump-era policies. All House Democrats and two Republicans voted against HR 2.
The state GOP came out swinging after Testerās ads started playing, with party Chair Don Kaltschmidt in a press release calling it āBidenās border bloodbathā and saying Testerās āvoting record and support for Joe Biden have aided and abetted an invasion of our countryĀ ā thereās no doubt about it.ā
The press release specifically claims that Tester voted against the Laken Riley ActĀ ā the latest major piece of immigration-related legislationĀ ā which is named after a young woman who was allegedly murdered by a man who illegally crossed the border and had previously been arrested in connection with a shoplifting case, but was later released by authorities.
The Laken Riley Act, which has so far passed the House, would require the Department of Homeland Security to detain migrants who are "unlawfully present in the United States" and are āarrested for burglary, theft, larceny, or shoplifting." The bill also authorizes states to sue the federal government for "decisions or alleged failures related to immigration enforcement.ā
The full Laken Riley Act has not yet reached the Senate for a roll call vote, but Tester did vote against inserting similar language thatās found in the Laken Riley Act into a package of legislation to keep funding the government.Ā
That amendment was one of a handful that put the government at risk of shutting down. If the Laken Riley amendment would have passed, the bill would have to return to the House for a vote, which would have triggered a partial government shutdown.
What theyāve said
While Sheehy doesnāt have a voting record like Tester, in a February speech at the state GOP convention in Helena, he focused on the southern border and used the issue to call out DemocratsĀ ā Tester and Biden specifically.
āSecuring the southern border will be that much more difficult if we don't have a Senate to pass enduring, long-term immigration reform. We have to seal that border for a generation. It can't be an executive order fix that can be peeled back by the next crazy liberal we elect president, we have to have an enduring solution, and that will take a majority in Congress and the Senate,ā Sheehy said.
Objecting to the use of the word ācartelsā in discussion of drug trafficking, Sheehy said, āThese are multibillion dollar multinational corporations. They have higher profits than the S&P 500. They are well-organized, well-financed, they have intelligence organizations, they have high-speed aircraft, boats and weapons, they have the ability to outrun and outsmart our entire border apparatus. And that's exactly what they're doing every single day ...ā
This month, Tester offered up criticism of Mayorkas, the Homeland Security secretary, as well as Biden for his policies related to the southern border. On Wednesday, however, Tester joined all other Senate Democrats in rejecting impeachment charges against Mayorkas. The votes fell on party lines, with Alaska Republican U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski voting present.
In a statement Wednesday, Tester again said what was happening at the southern border was "completely unacceptable and the Biden administration must do more," but said Montanans wanted "real solutions that secure the border, not partisan games form D.C. politicians."
"I agree with my Republican colleagues who have said this exercise is a distraction that fails to make our country safer," Tester said.
Sheehy quickly seized on Tester's vote.Ā
āJon Tester has worked hand in glove with Joe Biden to aid the invasion taking place at our southern border,ā Sheehy said in a statement. āEnough is enough with Testerās two-faced charade. We need leaders in the U.S. Senate with the backbone to do whatās right, restore accountability in D.C., finish the wall, and seal the border once and for all," he later added.Ā
Back in February on a press call as Congress was about to vote down the bipartisan bill that Trump criticized, Tester didn't mince words about frustrations that the legislation was caught in the political crosshairs.
āI think we need to know who's coming across that border, to make sure that we're not letting bad people in this country. The fact that we've got folks around here that want to use this for a political point that might give somebody a political advantage in the next election is ridiculous,ā Tester said.
Why the border matters in Montana
Montanaās ties to the southern border may not be as direct as states that share a geographical connection, but struggles with fentanyl are why many office-holders here have focused on the issue.
A press release from the Montana Department of Justice noted that there were 346,383 dosage units of fentanyl seized in the state in the first three quarters of 2023, up from 188,823 in all of 2022 and just 1,900 in 2019. The state saw 77 overdose deaths tied to fentanyl in 2023, up from four in 2017, according to the same press release.
While reporting from National Public Radio shows that fentanyl mainly enters the U.S. from Mexico, it also shows that nearly 90% of illicit fentanyl is seized at border crossings and āvirtually none is seized from migrants seeking asylum.ā
āImmigration authorities say nearly all of that is smuggled by people who are legally authorized to cross the border, and more than half by U.S. citizens,ā the reporting continues.
Montana also relies on migrants to keep its agriculture sector working. According to the state plan Montana must submit to the U.S. Department of Labor, the best estimate of how many migrant and seasonal farmworkers are in the state is from a 2017 agriculture survey that found āapproximately 13,499 migrant and/or seasonal farmworkers in the state that worked for 7,322 farm or ranch employers.ā Among non-English speakers, the primary languages spoken are Hmong and Spanish.
Data from Pew Research shows few unauthorized immigrants in Montana as of 2021Ā ā less than 5,000. There were 70 DACA recipients in the state as of 2020, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
ā ReporterĀ Holly Michels contributed to this story.