Montana Standard Endorsement: Re-elect Jon Tester to the U.S. Senate

Billings—Today, the Montana Standard in Butte endorsed Sen. Jon Tester for U.S. Senate, citing his commitment to Montanans’ health care, our farmers, and veterans.

The Standard criticized Matt Rosendale for lacking “knowledge beyond talking points,” and his recent “conversion” on public lands, which he previously pushed to transfer.

Rosendale was hit for his health care positions that would hurt rural Montana, such as his support for repealing our current health care system, which would strip protections from Montanans with pre-existing conditions, gut Medicaid, and devastate Montana’s rural hospitals. Rosendale was also called out for allowing a health care program back into Montana after it was banned for fraud and even though it doesn’t cover pre-existing conditions.

Montana Standard: Standard view: Re-elect Jon Tester to the U.S. Senate

By Editorial Board

October 14, 2018

Key points:

  • “Montana’s interests are best served by the man who has proven his commitment to them.”

  • “Tester has fought for [our current health care system], which forces insurance companies to cover people with preexisting conditions. That amounts to 25 percent of Montanans.”

  • Matt Rosendale supports repealing the Affordable Care Act and says he believes that preexisting conditions can be handled through a waiver the state can get to offer coverage. No other state has had success at this yet.

  • “Tester is the only Senator who has had his posterior parked in the cab of a tractor any time recently. And we believe that perspective is invaluable to Montana agriculture.”

  • “Similarly, even though Rosendale recently denigrated it as ‘little stuff,’ Tester’s actions on behalf of veterans – and his Senate seniority on the Veterans Affairs Committee – are enormously important to the 10 percent of Montana’s population who are veterans.”

  • “Montanans would be foolish to throw away the advantage they have in Jon Tester’s Senate seniority…It is how, for instance, he was able to get federal funding for the Butte VA home – which, by the way, Rosendale voted against in the Montana Legislature.”

  • Rosendale “says he’s listened to the people of Montana and decided to support what they support – the preservation of the state’s public lands. But what distresses us is that a conversion to that view was necessary (one wonders if political consultants have informed Rosendale how the issue polls in the state).”

  • “Our distress stems from the fact that Rosendale repeatedly said in public forums before his recent change of heart that public lands should be transferred from federal to state control…”

Read the entire editorial HERE.

###