'18 years is a hell of a run'

JACI WEBB Laurel Outlook Editor

Then-U.S. Senator Jon Tester woke up early one Sunday morning last fall to watch his favorite news program, CBS News Sunday Morning.

He had managed to tune out most of the negative commercials that seemed to get more personal as the election cycle wore on, and Tester thought he would catch the news, but political ads popped up. One of the most offensive to him was the commercial accusing Tester of voting against support for white American farmers, of which he is one. For Tester enough was enough.

"I thought, 'Life is too short to listen to that shit.' So I went out and changed the oil on my Peterbilt," Tester told The Laurel Outlook in December.

That morning on the farm, his hands greasy from farm work, Tester, 68, showed the other side of the statesman, who spent 18 years in Washington, serving on the Appropriations Committee and chairing the Veterans Affairs Committee. Tester always had one foot in Washington and one foot on the family farm in his beloved Montana. 

Aaron Murphy, who worked on Tester's first campaign for Senate in 2006 and was Tester's Chief of Staff from 2016 to 2018, said Tester loves the land, and he loves Montana.

"His soul is on that 1,800 acre farm in Big Sandy," Murphy said.

After serving three terms in the U.S. Senate and being the last Montana Democrat holding a federal office, Tester put up the fight of his life last year against political newcomer, Bozeman Republican Tim Sheehy, a decorated Navy Seal veteran. In the end, the long, contentious election cost  both campaigns a combined total of $300 million. On Nov. 5, Montana voters chose Sheehy over Tester, 53% to 46%, and Jon and his wife Sharla started packing for home. Tester blamed his loss on two factors.

"A lot of new people moved to the state and they don't know me. They didn't know of my work for the last 26 years," Tester said.

'Funnest job I ever had'

The 26 years refers to Tester's combined years in public service, starting with chairing the Big Sandy School Board, which Tester said is the hardest job he's ever done. He also served in the Montana Senate from 1999 to 2006 and as the President of the Montana Senate from 2005-2006, which Tester called the "funnest job I ever had."

Tester said, this election, the Democrats didn't focus enough on what he called "the kitchen table topics," the work they had been doing for the last four years. Those topics, he said included inflation and the southern border.

With the election behind him, there are no more crazy schedules to keep, no more weather-delayed flights when blizzards hit northern Montana, and no more tough battles on the Senate floor. Tester is coming home - back to the farm in Big Sandy that has been in the family for three generations. As Tester told The Outlook in December, "My schedule is very open."

Murphy said that, because Tester is a working farmer, "the guy who would sit on the combine and go back and forth all day long," he needed three full-time schedulers. There would be an important vote in the Senate at 10 a.m. and then he'd fly back to Montana to work the harvest into the wee hours, Murphy said.

Tester and Sharla, who have been married 47 years, started cleaning out their Washington, D.C., home the week before Christmas, and like anyone else who makes a cross-country move, they got rid of some furniture and loaded the rest for the 2,068-mile journey to Big Sandy. After spending the holidays with their daughter's family in Indiana, including three grandchildren, the Testers planned to return to Montana in January. Tester's official last day serving in the U.S. Senate was Jan. 3.

In Washington, Tester and Sharla kept their Montana roots in mind in everything they did. The Testers bought a townhouse near the legislative offices so he could walk to work. In the 2018 campaign, Matt Rosendale targeted Tester's purchase of the townhouse, calling it a million dollar mansion. The Billings Gazette reported in 2018 that it wasn't quite a mansion. In fact, the Testers paid $756,000 for the three-bedroom townhouse in 2013, and in 2018 still owed $250,000 to $500,000 on a 30-year mortgage.

Humble roots

Tester is proud of his humble roots. 

"I fulfilled our forefathers' view of what Congress should look like, where you had a job outside of the Senate," Tester said. "We have been farming for 47 years. I can't say I'm the only one that did it, but we followed that goal. I'm very proud to be working in agriculture."

The farm was homesteaded by Tester's grandfather in 1912, and when Jon was 21 and Sharla was 19, they took over the operation. It sits in Chouteau County about 30 miles outside of Big Sandy, a town with a population of 605 in the 2020 census.

Tester is not the only well-known person from Big Sandy. The co-founder and bass player for the Hall of Fame rock band Pearl Jam, Jeff Ament, is also from Big Sandy, and Pearl Jam played several benefit concerts, usually in Missoula, to help fund Tester's campaigns.

The Tester newlyweds worked side-by-side in the early days, running their custom meat enterprise as well as the farm. Tester joked in his farewell address to the Senate in December that they worked all day across the table from each other with sharp knives so they chose their battles well.

Tester said he considered himself fortunate that his two older brothers didn't want to farm, leaving it to him to run when his dad, David, retired. Tester learned to play the trumpet in school, even though he lost three fingers on his left hand in a meat-grinder accident when he was 9. He served on the debate team and as the student council president at Big Sandy High School and then went on to to earn a B.A. in music at the College of Great Falls (now University of Providence) in 1978. 

Lorrie Merrill, owner/editor of the Big Sandy Mountaineer, said she always respected Tester, and views him as a big part of the community, even though he spent half of his time in Washington for the last 18 years. She said she leans more liberal than many in her small town, and she will defend Tester all day long.

"The big discussion has been that he's a fake farmer. He's not. He's been home working in his field all this time," Merrill said.

Merrill remembers Tester playing "Taps" at funerals, and he always found time to go to the big Firemen's Chili Feed in the fall, perhaps the biggest event of the year in Big Sandy.

"He is just a regular part of the community," Merrill said.

The 2018 election against Republican Matt Rosendale was difficult, and when Tester won that election, he co-authored a book about it and his life with Murphy. The book, "Grounded: A Senator's lessons in winning back rural America," came out in 2020. 

Life-long Democrat and former Montana legislator Mary Sheehy Moe, the former CEO of the College of Great Falls, remembers Tester supporting Montana's technical colleges when he was President of the Montana Senate in 2005. She said his two most admirable traits are his hard work and his authenticity.

"He is so hard working. He was able to do his job in D.C., then come home to work on the farm and meet with his constituents," Moe said.

'He's a good man'

Moe said one of Tester's greatest legacies is getting the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill passed passed in 2021.

"It was hugely important for the nation and for Montana," Moe said. "I think that was why Mitt Romney was there for his farewell speech to the Senate. Like Romney said, 'He's a good man.'"

Tester also cites working with Senators on both sides of the aisle to get the bill passed as one of his greatest accomplishments in Washington.

"I worked with four Democrats and five Republicans to get that bill through," Tester said. "It was an investment in bridges and roads, the biggest investment piece passed since 1956," Tester said.

Former Yellowstone County Commissioner Robyn Driscoll said Tester was a strong advocate for rural Montana because he lives it.

"But I think his real legacy is the work he did on behalf of veterans," Driscoll said. "There was never a day in the senate when he wasn't thinking about and fighting for them."

Driscoll said Tester worked closely with Republicans to get the PACT Act passed in 2022, which helps veterans impacted by toxins. It was one of the largest benefit expansions in the history of the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Tester said he is also proud of helping the Little Shell Tribe get federal recognition, stopping the import of Brazilian beef and stopping gold from being mined in Paradise Valley just outside of Yellowstone National Park.

"The truth is you don't serve in this position and not have so many things you are proud of," Tester said. "18 years is a hell of a run."

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Reprinted with permission from The Laurel Outlook.