Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.) announced a Senate run on Friday, entering a race in which several high-profile Republicans \u2013 including former president Donald Trump \u2013 are rallying behind a different candidate seeking to unseat Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) in a heavily Republican state.<\/p>\n
Rosendale\u2019s decision sets up a competitive GOP primary, pitting the congressman against former Navy SEAL Tim Sheehy, who has secured the backing of several prominent Republicans.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis morning, I officially filed for the U.S. Senate,\u201d Rosendale announced on X, formerly Twitter. \u201cWe\u2019ve made great accomplishments in the House, only to see them die at the hands of Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer in the Senate. Montanans want a Senator that fights for WE, THE PEOPLE, not the D.C. Cartel!\u201d<\/p>\n
In a campaign video released Friday afternoon, Rosendale sought to cast himself as a candidate opposed to the Washington establishment, which he described as including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).<\/p>\n
The GOP primary race \u201cis the people of Montana versus Mitch McConnell, Joe Biden and the Washington establishment,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Rosendale was among eight House Republicans who ousted Kevin McCarthy from the House speakership last year.<\/p>\n
Rosendale also pitched himself as the candidate in the race with the closest ties to former president Donald Trump, saying in his new campaign video that he \u2018 voted in support of President Trump\u2019s agenda every single time\u2019 and that he \u201cstood with President Trump and voted against the electors\u201d on Jan. 6, 2021.<\/p>\n
But just hours after Rosendale announced his run, Trump endorsed Sheehy in the Senate race.<\/p>\n
\u201cI also respect Matt Rosendale, and was very happy to Endorse him in the past \u2013 and will Endorse him again in the future should he decide to change course and run for his Congressional Seat,\u2019 Trump wrote on Truth Social in his endorsement of Sheehy. \u2018But in this instance, Tim is the candidate who is currently best-positioned to DEFEAT \u2026 Tester, and Regain the Republican Majority in the United States Senate.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sheehy responded to Friday\u2019s announcement with a supercut video mocking Rosendale\u2019s pronunciation of Montana.<\/p>\n
\u201cMatt, this is your 8th political run in the last 14 years and you still can\u2019t say Montana right. It\u2019s going to be a long 4 months\u2026.,\u201d Sheehy wrote on X.<\/p>\n
The Republican Senate primary is set for June 4.<\/p>\n
Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.), chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, is among those backing Sheehy in the race.<\/p>\n
In a statement following Rosendale\u2019s announcement, Daines said, \u201cIt\u2019s unfortunate that rather than building seniority for our great state in the House, Matt is choosing to abandon his seat and create a divisive primary.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTim Sheehy has my full support because he is the best candidate to take on Jon Tester,\u201d Daines continued. \u201cWhichever party wins the Montana Senate seat will control the United States Senate in 2024, and Republicans cannot risk nominating a candidate who gave Jon Tester the biggest victory of his career.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a statement, Hannah Rehm, senior communications adviser for the Montana Democratic Party, said Rosendale\u2019s campaign announcement and the kickoff of a competitive GOP Senate primary means that \u201cMcConnell and the NRSC\u2019s greatest nightmare in Montana came true.\u201d<\/p>\n
Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte and Rep. Ryan Zinke, two other leading Republicans in the state, are also supporting Sheehy.<\/p>\n
Rosendale, who unsuccessfully ran against Tester for the Senate seat in 2018, was endorsed on Friday by Gun Owners of America, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) and Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah).<\/p>\n
While Tester, a Democrat, has served as a senator from Montana for three terms, the state leans conservative. Montana is R+11 in the 2022 statewide Cook Partisan Voter Index \u2014 a measure of how it performs at the presidential level compared to the nation as a whole. This means that in the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections, Montana performed 11 points more Republican in its two-party vote share than the entire nation.<\/p>\n
Hayden Godfrey contributed to this report.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.) announced a Senate run on Friday, entering a race in which several high-profile Republicans \u2013 including former president Donald Trump \u2013 are rallying behind a different candidate seeking to unseat Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) in a heavily Republican state. Rosendale\u2019s decision sets up a competitive GOP primary, pitting the congressman against […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":877,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=876"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/876\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}