Pro-abortion Sen. Jon Tester, D-MT, has seen his approval rating drop 13 percentage points in the last three months. And it might get worse for him now. Tester was the only Democrat in a vulnerable Senate race who refused to vote to reopen the government.
The plainspoken Montanan was on a glide path to a third term despite the conservative tilt of his state — among the safest of red-state Democratic incumbents on the November ballot….
But the spending vote has injected new life into Republicans’ hopes of giving Tester a fight — despite the senator’s adamance that he was doing right by his state.
Montana is one of five states that Trump won handily where Democrats are up for reelection this fall. And though Tester is recognized as a savvy campaigner, the GOP is hoping to make his race competitive enough to at least distract resources from other states, if not defeat Tester outright.