Amid the landslide victory for President-elect Donald Trump and the Republican Party across the nation, the state of Montana has shifted entirely to the GOP for the first time in over a century. For the first time since 1897, the state has exclusively Republican leadership in its statewide offices, a microcosm of what has been described as a massive political realignment nationwide.
For years, Montana had been trending toward becoming a solid red state, as voters have consistently elected Republicans to the House of Representatives since the late 90s. Eventually, Sen. John Tester became the last statewide Democrat where Republican challenger Tim Sheehy unseated his 18-year tenure in office.
Sen. Steve Daines recently spoke to Fox News Digital about the notable shift toward the Republican Party in his state. “I think what’s happened is Montana, in terms of their voting and their thinking, has moved a bit more right,” he explained. “The biggest problem for the Democrats is they’ve moved so far left. This is not the same Democrat Party that I grew up with here in Montana.”
The senator further noted that many new residents of Montana have moved to flee the Democratic leadership of other states. “We’ve just seen an influx of New Montana residents over the course of the last five, six years. And those new residents, from states like California, Oregon, Washington, even Colorado, are fleeing heavy-handed blue states and coming to a red state,” he continued.
“And so it’s not just the quality of life that is attracting these newly minted Montanans. It’s also the quality of leadership. They want to see center-right leaders who hold their values as they flee these liberal states. So we refer to these new Montanans as political refugees, not as political missionaries. They’re coming to join us, not to change us,” he added.
President-elect Donald Trump recently congratulated Sheehy on his monumental win over Sen. Tester. Trump said, “Tim Sheehy is an American Hero and highly successful Businessman from the Great State of Montana. He is strongly supported by our incredible Chairman of the NRSC, Steve Daines, and many other patriotic Senators and Republicans who have endorsed our Campaign to, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
Sheehy also expressed his gratitude toward Trump’s support, stating, “Well, first of all, of course, it’s a great honor to have President Trump’s endorsement. We’ve been supportive of him since even before the campaign started. We’ve been very vocal about our support of the America First policies and agenda, which he skillfully enacted during his time in the White House.”
Sheehy ran a powerful campaign in line with the Make America Great Again Agenda, vowing to fix the mess created by the Biden-Harris administration. “But I’ll tell you another thing, America is at a crossroads, and when I discovered that I’ve never run for anything in my life, I have a run for student council, I have a run for congress or anything else,” he said during a speech earlier this year.
As a former Navy Seal, Sheehy called out the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, saying, “Joe Biden abandoned them in Afghanistan. He left him behind, and he left billions of dollars of equipment. And in the wake of that, I got involved in politics. I said, Enough is enough. I’m sick of this bullsh*t. We got to save this country.”
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Featured image credit: Featured image credit: Rep. Ryan Zinke, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ryan_Zinke,_Chad_Wolf,_Matthew_Whitaker,_and_Tim_Sheehy_at_a_town_hall_in_Bozeman.jpg
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