Republican Senate candidate Tim Sheehy (Mont.) raised nearly $5.3 million in the second quarter of 2024, a spokeswoman told the Washington Free Beacon, a weighty sum in his bid to unseat incumbent Montana Sen. Jon Tester (D.).
Sheehy said in a statement that he thanks "Montanans in every corner of our state and folks across the nation who support our campaign to bring a new generation of conservative leadership to save America." More than $4.2 million raised by Sheehy’s campaign came from individual contributions, with another $1 million coming from Sheehy himself.
The sum is more than double the $2.1 million Sheehy raised in the first quarter of 2024, reflecting a surge in financial support to the Republican candidate.
With $3.2 million cash on hand, Sheehy’s campaign is well positioned to remain competitive in ad buys and get-out-the vote efforts. The Montana Senate race is considered to be one of the best opportunities for Republicans to flip a Senate seat, as Tester struggles to distance himself from President Joe Biden in a state that former president Donald Trump won handily by double digits in 2016 and 2020.
The CEO of Bridger Aerospace and a former Navy SEAL officer, Sheehy hopes to drag Tester down with Biden, whose low approval ratings show him to be the most unpopular president in modern times. Tester has not yet released his second quarter fundraising, but he raised more than $7.2 million in the first quarter of 2024.
That cash advantage has not translated to a lead in the polls, however. Recent surveys show Sheehy pulling ahead of Tester, a significant hurdle for the Democrat to overcome this close to November.
"Jon Tester will have plenty of cash to try and buy this election because he’s the number one recipient of lobbyist cash in D.C., taking even more lobbyist cash than Crooked Joe Biden, and continues to benefit from millions of liberal dark money dollars from Chuck Schumer and his out-of-state, far-left allies," Sheehy said in his statement.