Tester undecided on presidential endorsement

On the platform X, reporter Igor Bobic posted Tuesday that Tester said “we’re in the middle of a process.”

“We’ll let the process work out and then we’ll figure (it) out,” Tester reportedly said.

Asked who else he could support, Tester said “We’ll see who runs.”

Tester previously told the Montana State News Bureau he supports an open nomination process to replace President Joe Biden, who on Sunday dropped out of the race. Tester had previously urged Biden to step aside as the nominee, saying he hadn’t done enough to show he was up to the task following a disastrous debate performance in late June. At the time he was the second senator to do so.

According to The New York Times, 45 senators, including every one but Tester who is up for re-election, is backing Harris. The Times reports Tester is the lone Democratic senator and one of just nine in Congress who have issued statements but do not specifically support Harris. The remaining senators have not issued statements or weighed in.

While the Association of State Democratic Committees released a statement Sunday saying Harris has “overwhelming support” from their organization, the chair of the Montana Democratic Party was among those who abstained from voting.

The “vast majority of state party leaders voted to support Vice President Harris,” a release from ASDC on Sunday said. It noted no ASDC member voted in opposition but a “handful of members abstained for in-state procedural reasons.” That included Montana’s, those familiar with the process here said.

Tester is facing an intense re-election battle in Montana this year against Republican former Navy SEAL Tim Sheehy. In a state that’s turned a deeper hue of red in recent years, Tester has had to at times highlight where he breaks from his party nationally during his re-election bids and was already doing that this cycle with advertisements pointing out where he’s opposed the Biden administration.

Both in 2020 and 2016, former President Donald Trump dominated Montana, capturing about 56% of the vote in each of those elections. In his 2018 re-election bid, Tester repeatedly reminded voters of all the times Trump signed his legislation.

Now those working to unseat Tester are looking to associate him with Harris instead of Biden after weeks of running advertisements about how often Tester has voted with Biden. Sheehy’s campaign in an email on Tuesday shifted to knocking Tester for reportedly encouraging Harris to run for the Senate in 2015. That references a 2015 LA Times article saying that as chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Tester nudged Harris to run.

Tester’s colleague in the U.S. Senate, Montana’s junior Sen. Steve Daines, in his role as head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee working to unseat Tester, on Fox News Tuesday worked to paint Harris as too liberal.