John Tester
The author met Jon Tester at a restaurant in Great Falls, Montana. He generously offered to drive 78 miles from his home near Big Sandy to meet there. The gesture itself says something about the man.
Tester is a big man who looks every bit the Montana farmer he is. Most striking was how little eighteen years in the United States Senate appeared to have changed him. He was plainspoken, without airs, and seemingly unaffected by nearly two decades in Washington. This suggests that despite all his years at the seat of power, he somehow remained firmly rooted to the land and community that shaped him.
Before entering politics, Tester taught music for two years in local public schools, then returned to his family’s farm near Big Sandy, which he and his wife, Sharla, continue to operate. In the 1980s, they converted the farm from conventional to organic agriculture. He continued farming throughout his years in Washington, remaining a third-generation Montana farmer as well as a United States senator.
Tester was elected to the Senate in 2006, defeating Republican incumbent Conrad Burns in a close race. He won reelection in 2012 and again in 2018, retaining his blue seat against Montana’s rising red tide. In 2024 he lost to a Trump loyalist.
Montana’s red shift meant that some of Tester’s votes put him at odds with many voters in his state. His record included support for abortion rights, the Affordable Care Act and the Respect for Marriage Act, as well as opposition to President Donald Trump’s three Supreme Court nominees. On health care, Tester said in 2017 that the issue was “more important than the election.”
One of the defining moments of Tester’s final years in the Senate came on January 6, 2021. He was on Capitol Hill as a mob breached the Capitol during the certification of the 2020 presidential election. He later recalled watching people storm the building and described the effort “as a despicable and dangerous attack on our democracy.”
A month later, Tester voted to convict Trump in his second impeachment trial. He said political leaders must be held accountable to the rule of law “if we want our democracy to survive.”
Regarding the failure of the Republicans in Congress to fulfill their duties under Article I of the Constitution Tester said:
“I can’t say this definitely, but I think they’re fearful for their safety. I don’t think it’s just politics or the threat of a primary – the threat of special interest money is real, but I think it’s bigger than that. If you look at what Joni Ernst did on Pete Hegseth’s confirmation, and she will never admit this, but she flipped in about three hours and I believe she feared for her personal safety.”
GREAT FALLS, MONTANA – OCTOBER 9, 2026