Vulnerable Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) pleaded for donations in a joint-fundraising email that Rep. Adam Schiff’s (D-CA) Senate campaign sent voters Thursday.
The fundraising email, dated March 14 and reviewed by Breitbart News, begins with a message from Tester, in which he asks for a donation that will be split between his and Schiff’s campaigns.
“…in just a minute I’ll ask you to split a contribution between my campaign and Adam Schiff ahead of our mid-month fundraising deadline, but first I hope you’ll give me a moment to explain why it’s so important to give––especially today,” Tester began.
Obtained by Breitbart News
The sentence links to an ActBlue website collecting donations for the joint fundraiser, with options to contribute anywhere from $3-$500 or a custom amount.
Tester — who FiveThirtyEight notes votes with President Joe Biden’s agenda 91 percent of the time, the same as far-left Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) — went on to express concern about losing his seat in November, emphasizing, “This election isn’t a sure thing.”
“Let’s be clear: This election isn’t a sure thing. Experts say this race is a toss-up and rank Montana as one of the seats most likely to flip. That’s why it’s SO important you make a contribution today—everything is on the line,” he said.
Obtained by Breitbart News
The decision to fundraise with Schiff, who votes with Biden 100 percent of the time, is an interesting play for Tester, who is trying to win reelection in a red state with former President Donald Trump at the top of the November ballot. Not to mention, he is all but certain to face Republican Tim Sheehy — a political outsider and Navy SEAL veteran who has the support of Trump and an army of Republican senators — in the general election.
Tester has landed a substantial amount of donations from deep blue California for the 2024 election cycle, according to previous reporting from Fox News and the New York Post.
Fox News Digital reported in November that Tester hauled almost $1 million from California donors between the second and third quarters of 2023.
Montana GOP Chairman Don Kaltschmidt told Fox News that “Tester knows where his supporters are at – and it’s certainly not Montana,” adding:
Tester votes like California’s Third Senator and elites on the liberal coasts know he’s in lockstep with their far-Left agenda that’s crushing Montanans with sky-high inflation, rising gas prices and higher taxes. Montanans are ready to retire liberal career politician Jon Tester and send a strong conservative to the US Senate in 2024.
A New York Post report from April 2023 detailed:
Tester raised more than $675,000 in the first quarter from Golden State-based donors, more than $61,000 of which followed a March 13 Palo Alto fundraiser with a partner from Silicon Valley Bank’s legal firm amid the financial institution’s historic collapse.
Tester is perhaps the most vulnerable Senate Democrat seeking reelection in 2024 — and there are a lot of them, as Breitbart News has extensively detailed.
Montana has not elected a Democrat in a statewide race since Tester’s reelection bid in 2018. Tester’s win that year was narrow, as he beat out Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-MT) by 3.5 percent, and Republicans have dominated races since then.
In 2020, Gov. Greg Gianforte (R-MT) had nearly a thirteen-point victory over Democrat Michael Cooley, Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) won his reelection bid by ten percent, and Rosendale carried the state’s lone congressional district at the time by double digits. Republicans also swept the races for attorney general, auditor, and secretary of state. Trump carried the state by 16.4 points over Biden that year.
Sheehy is the lone Republican on the ballot for the June 4 GOP primary. He was two points back of Tester in a Nextsar Media sponsored Emerson College taken February 26-March 2, as they registered at 44 percent to 42 percent, respectively. Tester’s thin lead fell within the plus or minus three percentage percent credibility interval, underscoring how vulnerable he is out of the starting gate. The poll sampled 1,000 registered voters in Montana.
