Tester to Run for Reelection in 2024
WASHINGTON — Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., announced Wednesday he will run for reelection in 2024, a move seen as helping the party hold onto its narrow Senate majority in what some pundits have said could be a difficult year for Democrats.
“It’s official. I’m running for reelection,” Tester said in a tweet this morning.
“Montanans need a fighter that will hold our government accountable and demand Washington stand up for veterans and lower costs for families. I will always fight to defend our Montana values. Let’s get to work,” he said.
Tester, who is rock-star popular within the Democratic Party, holds one of several Senate seats in states that were won by former President Donald Trump in 2020.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., reacted to his announcement by tweeting, “Good news out of Montana today.”
Meanwhile Ronna McDaniel, chair of the Republican National Committee, immediately went on the attack via social media, tweeting, “Jon Tester voted with Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders over 90% of the time last Congress.
“Thanks to him, costs are higher, the border is open, and the IRS is coming for the middle class,” she said.
Tester, a third-generation Montana farmer, was first elected to the Senate in 2006 and will be running for his fourth term.
He narrowly won reelection in 2018 against current Montana Republican Rep. Matt Rosendale, but this time around he’s also got nearly $3 million in his Senate campaign account.
Tester is currently chair of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee and is a member of the Appropriations Committee; Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee; Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee and the Indian Affairs Committee.
Prognosticators have been saying even before the midterms that Democrats are expected to have a tough battle ahead to maintain their current, small, 51-49 majority, with 23 of their seats to defend compared to 11 for Republicans in areas generally considered favorable to the GOP.
Two of the Democratic seats they’ll be fighting to hold onto are in Ohio and West Virginia, where Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, has already announced he will seek reelection in two years’ time, and Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., who has yet to reveal his intentions.
Other battlegrounds are expected to be in Nevada, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.
Dan can be reached at [email protected] and @DanMcCue
