Jon Tester for United States Senate
Democrat
By Denise Rivette
Montana Independent News posed the same four questions to all candidates in the United States Senate race. Democrat Jon Tester’s views are presented in their entirety below.
What are the Montana values that will guide your decision-making?
I am a third-generation Montanan, still working the farm outside of Big Sandy that my grandparents homesteaded over 100 years ago. Growing up steeped in family agriculture gave me the Montana values that I bring to my role as the current senior Senator. I’ve lived in Montana my entire life: as a farmer, a former public school teacher, and a former member of the Montana State Senate. Montana needs somebody back in Washington, DC who defends rural Montana, and fights for our Montana values – I am running to make sure our kids and grandkids can grow up in the same Montana we know and love.
What skills, knowledge and experience do you possess that make you the better candidate?
My entire life has prepared me for my role as U.S. Senator, farmer, former public school teacher, former school board member, and a former member of the Montana State Senate. As Montana’s senior senator, I’ve proudly defended Montana and gone to bat for the folks who understand a hard day’s work. I will always fight to get our veterans the care they deserve, secure the border, lower costs, and invest in rural America – and the work isn’t done yet. I’ll take on anyone, from any party, to do right by Montana.
What are your top priorities to address during your term if you are elected?
Simply put, the Montana we know and love is changing. Everything from housing to groceries is more expensive as out-of-state multimillionaires move here and buy up our land, using Montana as their personal playground.
It’s putting a strain on everything – on prices, on our local infrastructure, on our towns and our parks and our public lands. With so much changing, we’ve got to have somebody in the Senate who’s willing to fight for our Montana way of life.
I still farm the land just outside of Big Sandy that my grandparents homesteaded more than 100 years ago. I feel those changes that are going on in Montana right now, every day.
Montana needs somebody back in Washington, DC who understands rural America. Someone who fights for our freedoms and goes to bat for our veterans, our family farms and ranches, our working families, our health care workers and our teachers. I’m running to keep up the fight for those folks, and to make sure our kids and grandkids can grow up in the same Montana we know and love. Montana is the greatest state in the greatest country in the world and it’s damn sure not for sale.
What legislative language would you propose or support to address those priorities?
I’ve worked tirelessly to fight for our veterans, lower costs, and defend our freedoms, and I’ll continue to work hard to represent the voices of Montanans in the Senate.
As Chairman of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, I’ve always believed that we need to take care of our veterans when they come home – and if we can’t do that, we shouldn’t send them off to war to begin with. That’s why I’ve successfully pushed for more doctors, nurses, and health care personnel, and for the VA to open new and better clinics across the state. We also fought hard to make sure we righted a generational wrong with the passage of my PACT Act, which finally expanded care to toxic-exposed veterans, including thousands in Montana. But we have more work to do, and I’ll keep fighting to cut red tape at the Department and ensure our veterans get the care and benefits they’ve earned.
I also believe what’s happening on the southern border is unacceptable, and dedicating more manpower and resources is crucial to keeping Montanans safe. That’s why I’ve called on President Biden to step up and do everything in his power to secure the border, and it’s why I supported a strong bipartisan deal to get our border under control earlier this year. This bipartisan bill would have hired more border patrol agents, cracked down on the fentanyl crisis, and tightened asylum standards – that’s why it received the strong endorsement of the National Border Patrol Council. Unfortunately, many of my colleagues decided to play politics and voted to keep the border open for another year so they could campaign on the issue.
And finally, I’m fighting to lower costs. I recently introduced a bill to establish a manufactured housing community improvement grant program, to help revitalize Montana’s affordable housing supply. I will continue pushing for my Rural Housing Service Reform Act to improve federal rural housing programs. We need to continue investing in affordable housing programs. I’ll never stop fighting to protect working Montana families, because our kids and grandkids deserve to grow up in the same Montana that we know and love.