To Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT), there’s an urgent need to stop “billionaires from buying our elections.”
Tester often slams the wealthy and well-connected for trying to wield power in Washington, D.C., a phenomenon he attributes to the Supreme Court’s landmark 2010 Citizens United decision, which ruled it unconstitutional to restrict outside groups from spending cash on campaign advertising. But the Democratic senator has long relied on billionaires to cut him checks; they’ve wired his own campaign hundreds of thousands of dollars since 2006, and many are lining up behind Tester as he hopes to retain his Montana Senate seat in a 2024 race widely viewed as a toss-up, Federal Election Commission records show.
That Tester continues to accept large sums from billionaires is likely to further open him up to charges of hypocrisy on the campaign trail. The Senate Democrat has come under fire for not following through on his pledge years earlier to disclose meetings with lobbyists, who directed more than $400,000 last year to Tester’s campaign and leadership political action committee. Meanwhile, internal emails show Hemp industry lobbyists deeply shaped a bill Tester put forth in 2023 aiming to transform regulations to benefit farmers — despite the senator asserting he doesn’t “depend upon” lobbyists.
“Two-Faced Tester has become everything that’s wrong with Washington,” Katie Martin, a campaign spokeswoman for Republican Senate candidate Tim Sheehy, told the Washington Examiner. “Tester got six times richer and became a multimillionaire as a career politician hobnobbing with lobbyists and voting like New York’s third Senator for nearly two decades in exchange for millions of liberal super PAC and out-of-state dark money from progressive billionaires trying to buy Montana’s elections.”
Tester, who previously said “out-of-state billionaires are trying to buy our Senate seat,” has described so-called dark money as “a stain on our country.” That sentiment didn’t stop the lawmaker from pocketing $32,000 combined this election cycle from billionaire George Soros, who bankrolls the dark money Open Society Foundations grantmaking empire, as well as Soros’s family members.
Tester’s 2024 reelection campaign has also scored donations from ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who Forbes estimates to be worth $20.9 billion; chairman Barry Diller of the major holding company IAC Inc.; Indiana Pacers Owner Herb Simon; heirs to the Walmart fortune, such as Jim Walton; and investor Dirk Ziff, according to campaign finance disclosures.
Billionaire Democrat climate investor Tom Steyer directed $6,600 to Tester’s campaign in July of last year, for instance. Other billionaires who recently backed Tester include venture capitalist Gary Lauder, philanthropist Jon Stryker, and hedge fund manager Bill Ackman.
“It doesn’t matter how much out-of-state PACs & billionaires spend if we’ve got Montanans burning shoe leather, going door-to-door to reach friends & neighbors,” Tester notably said in 2018.
That same year, he asserted his race “won’t be won by out-of-state billionaires or Super PACs. It will be won by Montanans reaching out to Montanans during critical Weekends of Action like this one, talking about what’s at stake for Big Sky Country.”
Tester is expected to face off against Sheehy, whom former President Donald Trump endorsed. Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-MT) was in the Montana Senate race for one week but dropped out in February due to not seeing a viable path to the GOP nomination.
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According to data compiled by OpenSecrets, a campaign finance tracking website, Tester has taken more cash — $151,968 — than any other senators this cycle from the commercial banking industry. The same goes for venture capitalists, who have delivered Tester’s campaign $222,080.
Tester’s campaign did not return a request for comment.
