Trump heads to reliably red Montana looking to give Republicans a boost in key Senate race
CNN
Former President Donald Trump returns to the campaign trail Friday when he visits Montana, where he will try to enhance Republican efforts to unseat Democratic Sen. Jon Tester in a race seen as critical to deciding control of the Senate.
Former President Donald Trump returns to the campaign trail Friday when he visits Montana, where he will try to enhance Republican efforts to unseat Democratic Sen. Jon Tester in a race seen as critical to deciding control of the Senate. The rally in Bozeman will also be Trump’s first since Vice President Kamala Harris officially secured the Democratic nomination and selected Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to be her running mate, two moves that have energized Democrats and, if only for a few days, knocked the former president out of the headlines. Big Sky Country is expected to break overwhelmingly for Trump in November, but the Senate race, which pits Republican Tim Sheehy against Tester, the increasingly rare red-state Democrat, is on track to be much closer. As president in 2018, Trump stumped hard for then-state Auditor Matt Rosendale, visiting the state four times during that midterm cycle. Rosendale, now a congressman, lost to Tester by about 3 points. Sheehy, a retired Navy SEAL and aerospace CEO, is expected to appear alongside Trump at the event, sources familiar with the lineup told CNN. Trump has for years been at odds with Tester, the top Democrat on the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, over the senator’s role in sinking the nomination of former White House doctor Ronny Jackson to run the Veterans Affairs Department. Trump’s visit to Montana comes on the heels of a busy week for Harris, who officially selected Walz as her vice presidential pick on Tuesday before the two struck out on a campaign tour of battleground states, including Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, has closely mirrored the Harris-Walz campaign’s schedule, visiting many of the same states in what he said was an effort to heighten the contrast between the dueling tickets. The former president, meanwhile, spent the week at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. On Thursday, he held a roughly hourlong news conference with reporters at Mar-a-Lago during which he attempted to recapture the spotlight from his Democratic rival.
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