MONTANA — Behind one of the most competitive Senate races in the country, Democrats are clashing over how to build power in a rural state that’s turned increasingly red in recent years.
In Montana, Sen. Jon Tester is running as the only Democrat who has been able to keep statewide office. All eyes are on him, inside and outside the state. But now that polls show Tester falling short against Republican Tim Sheehy, Democrats in Montana are warning of a power vacuum that could damage the party irreparably. And they are pointing fingers about how it got to this point.
“One candidate should not run an entire party,” Reilly Neill said. She’s a former state representative who’s currently running a write-in campaign in Montana’s 2nd Congressional District after feeling the party was negligent about fielding a Democratic candidate. “In rural areas, it hollows out the party because then you just don’t have that consistent engagement.”