(C) Daily Montanan This story was originally published by Daily Montanan and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . The battle lines are already being drawn in Montana's 2024 Senate race – Daily Montanan [1] ['More From Author', 'December', 'Dave Lewis'] Date: 2022-12-14 Hang on to your hats, cow people. This 2024 U.S. Senate race has been identified as one of the top three races in the United States. The 2020 race between Steve Bullock and Steve Daines cost almost $80 million. This one will easily exceed $100 million. Why so expensive? It could decide control of the Senate. The incumbent, Jon Tester is being identified as an out-of-place liberal in a “red state.” I served in the Montana Senate when he was President of the Senate. Jon is a very shrewd guy. He comes back to Big Sandy every year to plant and harvest his grain crop. He lost part of his hand as a kid helping the family grind meat. He is as down home and tough as can be found, and plays the game very well. His only vulnerability is that the national Democrat Party is way out of step with the average Montana voter. But, he has played that well during the years. His major asset is what you see is what you get, a smart and experienced political operator well known and liked in most of Montana. Why do Republicans seem to think that he can be beaten? They think that they can tar him with the sins of the national Democratic Party. Certainly possible but hard to make stick. But a lot of money will be spent to accomplish this. The question is: How many mailers and TV commercials can you throw out before they lose effectiveness? We certainly will find out. More importantly, who will be the opponent? The top three on a crowded Republican bench are Gov. Greg Gianforte, and Montana’s two Republican Congressmen, Ryan Zinke and Matt Rosendale. There are others who might think about it, but these are the ones most likely to be able to raise the money to get a seat at this table. The governor is up for possible re-election in 2024 and has a good chance. Would he trade that for a chance to challenge and incumbent member of the Senate Democratic leadership? Well, only he knows but to an observer it seems unlikely. That leaves the two Republican Congressmen. I served in the State Senate with both. They are both shrewd as well. No Congressman has ever been elected that did not secretly think of being a Senator. But both of our congressmen have to carefully weigh the risks. The Republican Party certainly would not want to see a primary fight between the two incumbents. They would both have to turn down their chance at reelection to Congress to risk it all for the chance to run for Senate. It seems unlikely that will be approved by the party leaders. There will be a lot of time spent looking at which one would be most likely to win. Plus there is a feeling that seniority means something and the senior congressman would get the nod. But there is no accounting for ambition. There will be no serious challenge to Tester on the Democratic side so all the maneuvering will be on the Republican side. It should make for good theater. [END] --- [1] Url: https://dailymontanan.com/2022/12/14/the-battle-lines-are-already-being-drawn-in-montanas-2024-senate-race/ Published and (C) by Daily Montanan Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/montanan/