Voters unseated Democratic Sens. Jon Tester (Montana) and Sherrod Brown (Ohio) in Tuesday's election as part of the Republican takeover of the Senate. Republicans currently hold a 52-43 majority in the Senate. This will give it a leading role in approving judges and executive branch nominees selected by the incoming Trump administration.
The House of Representatives is still up in the air. As of this writing, Republicans have 200 House seats, compared to Democrats' 179, and Republicans need 218 to maintain control.
John Tester
Montanans first elected Tester to the Senate in 2006, and attempts to oust him have failed since then. Tester has promoted his persona as a blue-collar, organic farmer in every election. It took political newcomer Tim Sheehy, a former Minnesota native and former Navy SEAL, to do what former Maryland native Matt Rosendale failed to do in 2018. Mr. Sheehy won by nearly 8 points, about the same as polls predicted.
During Tester's 18 years in the Senate, he never scored above 30 percent on the Freedom Index in any session. His lifetime score was 21 percent. That's how often testers voted in line with the U.S. Constitution. Like most Democrats and establishment Republicans, he has never met a spending bill he didn't like. And like most Democrats, he pandered to the state's minorities, both to his benefit and to his detriment.
It was only a matter of time before someone like Tester was kicked out in a red state. In 2020, Montana elected Republican Governor Greg Gianforte for the first time in 16 years, and Republicans won nearly every statewide election by large margins.
sherrod brown
Like Tester, Sherrod Brown also ran for a fourth term, but lost to newcomer Bernie Moreno. And like Tester, Brown was no supporter of the U.S. Constitution. He racked up a dismal Freedom Index record with a lifetime cumulative score of 20%.
Mr. Brown voted to send foreign aid to Ukraine, Taiwan and Israel. He voted to continue allowing intelligence agencies to spy on Americans without a warrant and voted against excluding noncitizens from the census.
Mr. Moreno and Mr. Sheehy are both Trump-backed businessmen who ran in high-stakes races and whom voters deemed better suited to represent them than longtime politicians. Sheehy runs a fire service, and Moreno is a former car dealer in the Cleveland area who has focused on blockchain technology in recent years.
Speaking of the D.C. game, the new Senate majority will also be under new leadership for the first time in 18 years. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is stepping down from the top post he has held since 2007.
