The foul-mouthed farmer sticking his neck out for Democrats’ agenda
Still, Republicans are surprised Tester is going along with Biden’s larger social spending bill given his home state politics. They also suspect Tester’s folksiness is an act that helps him win even as he’s left of many of his voters.
“He’s pretty good at what he does, sort of picking his issues and being able to support the national Democratic agenda while appearing just to be a good ol’ farmer from Montana,” said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), a former whip and chair of the party’s campaign committee.
“He’s a crafty politician,” added Senate Minority Whip John Thune.
Tester is not exclusively a party-line vote for Schumer and makes sure there’s some distance between him and the national party. He never committed to Biden’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives nominee, who was eventually pulled, and has opposed the $15-an-hour federal minimum wage.
He’s also challenging Schumer and Biden’s plans to spend billions on electric car infrastructure, saying he isn’t sure that’s the climate change solution the country needs. Yet he acknowledged, with a characteristic curse, that he could be wrong: “This is an arguable point, by the way. Industry folks will say I’m full of shit.”
Tester said his preference would be to spend more money on research and development for plug-in vehicles. “Electric cars are a great idea. I would hope, at some point, we get to electric tractors.”
As his vocabulary shows, he’s known for taking risks — lots of them, even in an election year. While seeking a third term, Tester repeatedly voted against government funding bills in 2018 in a protest over budget priorities for Montana. He also derailed Trump’s Veterans’ Affairs nominee and opposed all of Trump’s Supreme Court nominees.
Tester won reelection narrowly, anyway.
Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), the third upper-chamber Democrat hailing from a state Trump won twice, described his friend this way: “He’s willing to lose for his principles. I don’t say that a lot.”
“He’s a real farmer and I’m, like, a politician,” Brown said. “But the other thing is, his personality is bigger than life.”
As for all that swearing: “I don’t think he’s any worse than any of us. He’s just less restrained around reporters,” said Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), another ally. Still, Tester acknowledges his staffers have urged him to quit it.
“I’ve been trying to cut back, okay?” Tester said, not convincingly.
Tester’s what-you-see-is-what-get appeal is extremely frustrating for Republicans, who constantly portray him as out of step with conservative Montana even as he keeps winning.
He’s vanquished every conceivable type of GOP opponent. First it was establishment incumbent Sen. Conrad Burns in 2006, then former Rep. Denny Rehberg in 2012 and finally conservative former state auditor Matt Rosendale in 2018 (Rosendale is now the state’s at-large House member).
