Jon Tester, one of Montana’s two US senators, is up for re-election in the 2024 General Election. You can view verified information about Jon by clicking on the links below:
Quotes
“Montanans of all stripes don’t want the federal government telling them what to do. We value our freedom in the Last Best Place, and I’ll never stop standing for a woman’s right to make her own health care decisions.”
“In a state like Montana, we look out for each other. Our word is our bond and a handshake means something,” said Senator Jon Tester from the Montana Capitol in Helena. “Folks back in Washington D.C. really don’t understand rural America, and they don’t understand the challenges we face—whether you’re a Main Street business, or a family farm, whether you’re a veteran, whether you’re Native American, whether you’re a sportsman who wants to be able to go out and fish and hunt. All these things are worth fighting for. I look forward to the campaign ahead as we fight for Montana, and make sure Montana stays the greatest state in the greatest country in the world.”
CANVASSING FACTS FROM SENATOR JON TESTER’S 2020 MEMOIR, GROUNDED
Third-Generation Montana Farmer
Jon was born in Havre on August 21, 1956, and was baptized in the LDS church, “though I’ve never considered myself a member.” Jon’s mother was a knowledgeable, progressive “FDR Democrat” who brought “common sense and smart cool headedness to every conversation” and who volunteered for candidates she believed in. Jon and Sharla have three grandchildren: Braydon, Tucker, and Kilikina (Hawaiian for “follower of Christ”). Jon’s son, Shon, came out as gay after Shon graduated from high school. “Through Shon, my perspective on LGBTQ rights and acceptance has evolved significantly since that conversation. I am now proud to admit I’m the father of a man who happens to be gay.”
Jon’s grandparents homesteaded the family farm near Big Sandy over a century ago. Jon is a third generation Montana farmer who converted the 1,800-acre farm to organic in 1986 and served for two years on the executive committee of the Organic Crop Improvement Association. With a degree in music (with honors) and a teaching certificate from the College of Great Falls, Jon also taught elementary school music. Jon is the only US Senator with a full-time job outside the Senate. “I wanted only to be a farmer.”
Climate Change
His experience as a farmer (with the arrival of wheat stem sawflies, increased flooding, drought, wildfire smoke, and crop insurance premiums) has taught him that “climate change is banging at the door, and we’re foolish to ignore it as it quietly creeps under the floorboards.”
“My God, facts matter. They always have and they always will. The minute they don’t is the minute our nation no longer belongs to the people. . . Value independent journalism. . . Demand accountability. Allow the people we all serve to expect truth and transparency. They deserve no less.” “We are renting our planet from our grandchildren, which means we cannot afford the boneheaded luxury of ignoring science. . . I am a farmer, and that means I’m beholden to science. I also know that Mother Nature always—always—bats last.”
Public Lands
“We need the federal government to serve as chief steward of the majority of America’s vast public lands.” “Powerful forces are still at work advocating the transfer of federally owned lands to the jurisdiction of individual states, which clearly don’t have the resources needed to manage them.”
“There are simply some places where you should not dig and you should not drill, and the front porch of Yellowstone National Park is one of those places.”
Constitutional Rights
“Sure, there are lots of major issues: the crisis of climate change, access to affordable health care, our national security, our food security, and the erosion of our constitutional rights. But we can address none of these effectively unless we first tackle the issue of money—far too much of it—flooding into our political system.”
“Once we can find real common ground on reforming our campaign finance system, then all of us ought to return to the principle of fiscal conservatism—not just when a Democrat holds the keys to the White House.”
Jon told Senator Schumer: “Don’t underestimate Montanans’ libertarian appreciation of the American rights that the Patriot Act took away.” Jon pointed out that “President Bush still had no plan for his disastrous war in Iraq, ‘We’re in a quagmire over there.’”
“I still believe that the right of law-abiding citizens to keep and bear arms is one of the most powerful checks on the ever-present threat of a tyrannical government ever conceived. . . .” Jon voted for the Manchin-Toomey gun amendment that would have assured that criminals and the mentally ill are not able to purchase firearms. “I believe the biggest threat to legal gun ownership is the NRA’s stubborn zero-tolerance policy for common sense.”
After the Montana Senate Majority Leader explained that the Montana Constitution is the only state constitution that protects human dignity, Jon had a personal epiphany: “I became a proud advocate of protecting the freedom of choice and a woman’s right to make her own decisions.”
Jon’s internal ethics rules forbid former staffers who become lobbyists from lobbying him ever. Jon also publicizes his daily public schedule online at the end of each workday in Congress.
“Government should be in the business of guaranteeing health care for its citizens.” Voting for the Affordable Care Act was “the second-easiest vote of my political career.”
Jon voted against the bailout of Wall Street in 2008, “joining only eight Democrats in doing so.” Jon also “voted against the auto bailout” and “became the only Senate Democrat who voted against both bailouts.”
“The need to reform campaign financing to shine light on dark money, rein in political spending, and limit corporate influence in politics is the most urgent issue facing America’s political future.”
Veterans
“More than 100,000 veterans call Montana home.” Jon has served as the ranking member and then chair of the US Senate Veterans’ Affairs (VA) Committee and the Veterans’ Affairs Appropriations Subcommittee. He has taken to heart what one Vietnam veteran told him “you’re not going to treat this group of veterans the way we got treated.” Jon has played “Taps” on his trumpet at funerals of hundreds of veterans, including at the funeral of his friend, Medal-of-Honor recipient, US Senator Daniel Inouye of Hawaii.” “Taking care of our veterans is a cost of war. You do not send young Americans to war and then not take care of them.” “I strongly oppose the privatization of the VA.”
Indian Affairs
Jon is a member of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee. Also a member of the Senate Interior Appropriations Subcommittee, which funds much of the Indian Health Service (IHS), Jon resisted President Trump’s “trainwreck” of a budget that “proposed cutting of more than $200 million from the IHS and the 2.2 million Americans it serves.” Jon “called bullshit” after trying to get answers from an unprepared IHS acting director, stating that the “dysfunction was made worse by the Trump administration’s weird and dangerous strategy of insisting that lies are facts and, under no circumstances ever admitting any wrong.” The US Government “has a contractual duty to uphold its trust responsibilities to recognized Indian tribes.” Jon and a Republican colleague nominated a heroic World War II veteran, Dr. Joseph Medicine Crow, for the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.
Family Farms and Ranches
In the US Senate, Jon has fought for family farms and ranches by successfully amending the proposed Food Safety Modernization Act so that “small farms and food processors who sell their food directly to consumers, grocery stores, or restaurants [which his farm does not] would be exempt from the onerous new federal regulations, as long as they grossed less than a half-million bucks per year, and as long as they sold their products within their own state boundaries, or within a 275-mile radius.” To Jon, large, industrial, “vertically-integrated food systems have a single point of failure.”
Leadership Advice
Served as student body president of Big Sandy High, as a member of Big Sandy Conservation District board, as vice chair and chair of Big Sandy school board, and as Minority Leader and then President of Montana State Senate as a Democrat. His advice to local candidates is “knock on every door.” Jon was told by his mother “you have two ears and one mouth, so use them accordingly.” In describing the teachings of his high school speech and debate coach, Jon stated that “studying both sides of an issue and changing minds with facts and words sparked in me a flame of politics.”
To Jon, “effective leadership requires being open to everything. It requires examination, and a willingness to give up something, even if it means a little discomfort.” Jon believes he won his first primary election for US Senate “by sticking to the issues that resonated with all voters, not just Democrats: jobs, health care, fiscal responsibility, public education, energy and the environment, and public lands.”
“We need to work together. We need to put aside the political pettiness and work together to get things done. And I will tell you why. Because I have traversed this state–north, south, east, and west—the people I’ve talked to—the biggest issue they bring up is, ‘Why can’t you guys work together?’ Well, we can. And we will. And it will happen because the American people are demanding it.”
“Democrats, start speaking to everyone in America.” “The status quo ain’t working, and we ought to be listening—truly listening—to what rural America has to say about it.”
“There’s nothing complicated about what our party stands for—opportunity for everyone.” “Ordinary families aren’t demanding a higher minimum wage; they simply want: steady, fair-paying working they can be proud of, with fair benefits and opportunities.” “I’ve won each of my elections because I gave voters a reason. Good public education, Quality, affordable health care. Accountability. Freedom. Montana’s way of life. Those are things that everyone can relate to, regardless of party.”
A Petulant President
“In Montana, character and authenticity matter.” Jon characterized Trump as “a petulant president who has no moral compass” who used his “disastrous presidency” to “hawk false promises to the honest people of America.” “Trump tapped into the deep, gnarly root of racism in rural America.” By 2018, President Trump had signed 16 of Jon’s bipartisan bills into law.
“The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, which President Trump and his GOP allies in the Senate rushed through . . . ballooned our spending problem by giving tax breaks to the Americans who needed it least.” Jon voted against the Act calling it “one of the most expensive spending measures in our nation’s history” that was “going to shift money from middle-class families to the rich” and “put another $2 trillion of debt on our kids.”
“My goal during the president’s first two years in office was to simply work with President Trump wherever I could and to hold him accountable whenever I had to.” Trump signed nine of Jon’s bipartisan bills for veterans in 2017 alone. Jon voted against some of Trump’s nominees: Betsy DeVos for Education and Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh for Supreme Court. “President Trump and his team promised to do everything they could to deny me another term in the US Senate.” “I’d won my third term in the US Senate having earned the support of seven percent of self-identified Republicans across Montana. . . . They voted for character and authenticity over political party.” “Just look at a guy like me: A gun-owning, middle-of-the-road dad and grandpa who eats beef and grows organic food, who loves a good whiff of dirt, who questions elected leaders who think they’re not accountable to our country, and who refuses to lose sight of the issues that will truly affect the future of our nation: inequality, intolerance, injustice, and the precipice of climate change.”
For posts about Jon’s opponent for US Senate, Tim Sheehy, click here.