Voters fired Democratic Senators Jon Tester of Montana and Sherrod Brown of Ohio in Tuesday’s elections as part of the GOP’s Senate takeover. Republicans have a 52-43 Senate majority so far. This will give them a leading role in confirming judges and executive branch nominees brought up by the incoming Trump administration.
The House of Representatives is still in the air. At the time of this writing, the GOP had 200 House seats to the Democrats’ 179. They need 218 to retain control.
Jon Tester
Montanans first elected Tester to the Senate in 2006, and efforts to dislodge him since have failed — until now. Tester has played up his blue-collar, organic-farmer persona in every election. It took political newcomer and former Navy SEAL Tim Sheehy, formerly of Minnesota, to do what Matt Rosendale, formerly of Maryland, couldn’t do in 2018. Sheehy won by a nearly eight-point margin, almost identical to poll predictions.
During his 18-year Senate run, Tester never achieved more than a 30-percent Freedom Index score in any congressional session. His lifetime score was 21 percent. That’s how often Tester voted in line with the U.S. Constitution. Like most Democrats and Establishment Republicans, he never met a spending bill he didn’t like. And, like most Democrats, he pandered to his state’s minority groups to his benefit and their detriment.
It was only a matter of time before someone like Tester would be ousted in an otherwise red state. In 2020 Montanans elected a Republican governor, Greg Gianforte, for the first time in 16 years, and Republicans won by large margins in nearly every statewide race.
Sherrod Brown
Like Tester, Sherrod Brown was also beaten in his bid for a fourth term, defeated by newcomer Bernie Moreno. And, like Tester, Brown was never a fan of the U.S. Constitution. He accumulated a dismal Freedom Index record, with a cumulative lifetime score of 20 percent.
Brown voted to send foreign aid to Ukraine, Taiwan, and Israel. He voted to continue allowing intelligence agencies to spy on Americans without warrants, and voted against taking noncitizens off the U.S. Census.
Moreno and Sheehy both had Trump’s backing, ran in very expensive races, and are businessmen who voters deemed more fit to represent them than the longtime politicians. Sheehy owns a firefighting service, and Moreno is a former Cleveland-area car dealer who turned his focus in recent years to blockchain technology.
Speaking of D.C. fixtures, the new Senate majority will also be under new leadership for the first time in 18 years. Senator Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is stepping down from the top post he has held since 2007.
