MT-SEN: Montana's Tribal Voters Could Determine the Makeup of the Senate
Native Americans are always an important voting bloc in Montana, where they make up 6.5 percent of the population, per U.S. Census data. But this November, their involvement could potentially impact the entire nation.
Control of the Senate may hang on the outcome of the Montana Senate race, where Democratic Sen. Jon Tester is up for reelection in this reliably red state, likely facing off against Republican Tim Sheehy, whom former President Donald Trump has endorsed. Trump won Montana by nearly 17 percentage points in 2020, and Tester won by 3.5 percentage points — or nearly 18,000 votes — in 2018. Montana’s tribes comprise about five percent of the voting bloc, nearly twice the margin by which Tester won his last race.
Native voters are “hugely important to the Democratic base,” says Jim Messina, an Obama White House alum and former adviser to Tester with deep political roots in Montana. Tester ousted Republican Sen. Conrad Burns in 2006 in part by siphoning off some of Burns’ support among Native Americans. “Tester was able to cut into that bloc and really move them towards him,” Messina says.
Tribal leaders say Tester has a good track record of pushing policies that are important to Native Americans. As an example, they point to the Little Shell Tribe, which lobbied Congress for more than 150 years for federal recognition — crucial for tribal sovereignty and access to federal resources such as health care, education and economic development. But it wasn’t until 2019 that the tribe earned much-coveted federal recognition as part of the National Defense Authorization Act — thanks largely to Tester’s efforts, according to Tribal Chair Gerald Gray.
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/05/12/letter-from-montana-00155737
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