NRA bets big on Montana in gun rights push as Tester teeters in Senate race
The NRA is targeting Sen. Jon Tester of Montana for his Second Amendment record as it pushes voters to usher in a pro-gun rights Senate majority.
FIRST ON FOX: The National Rifle Association (NRA) is going live on Montana's airwaves with a massive push against vulnerable Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., on Tuesday, specifically attacking his record on gun rights.
"Where I live, you can't wait for 911. My family's safety is in my hands alone," a female narrator says in a new ad from the NRA's political action committee, the NRA Political Victory Fund.
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The video depicts a would-be intruder approaching a home with a woman alone inside who grabs her firearm when she realizes someone is outside. The narrator says Tester "failed to protect my right to self-defense."
"And that's why moms like me can't wait to fire him in November," she continued.
The more than $2 million reservation will be seen across the Big Sky State and will also reach Montana voters on digital platforms, through text and direct mail components.
The expenditure is the NRA Political Victory Fund's first television ad of the cycle.
According to the PAC, the ad was filmed on location and also features a real Montana mother.
"This November, gun owners can't afford to sit on the sidelines," Randy Kozuch, chair of the NRA Political Victory Fund, said in a statement.
"With this seven-figure ad buy, only a portion of our electoral engagement in Montana, we are calling out Jon Tester," he said.
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Per Kozuch, Tester's "voting record in the Senate makes clear he is not on the side of Montanans who support the 2nd Amendment."
He specifically pointed to Tester's support for "anti-gun" Supreme Court justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson.
"He has voted to spend taxpayer dollars to promote state-level red flag laws, which are ripe for abuse, and deny gun owners basic due process protections. And he's voted multiple times to criminalize private firearms transfers while supporting government blacklists," he said.
The Montana Democrat notably voted in favor of bipartisan gun legislation in 2022 that made millions of dollars in grant funding available to states for the purpose of enforcing protection orders for those deemed to be extreme risks, colloquially referred to as "red flag laws." The grants also assist states in closing what's referred to as the "boyfriend loophole," expanding limits on firearm ownership for domestic abusers to a variety of relationships, as opposed to only spouses.
Fifteen Republicans joined Senate Democrats at the time to support the bill. However, the majority of the GOP conference did not back the measure.
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Tester campaign spokesperson Monica Robinson told Fox News Digital in a statement, "As Tim Sheehy himself said, ‘I’m not the biggest fan of the NRA, because I don’t think the NRA is really, truly worried about Second Amendment rights.’ There’s one champion who has always defended Montana gun owners, and that’s Jon Tester, who is a proud gun owner himself."
Robinson was referencing a June Politico report that Sheehy was skeptical about the NRA's interests during an event last year. A Sheehy spokesperson responded at the time, pointing to the fact that he is a "political outsider who calls it like he sees it."
In a statement to Fox News Digital, a spokesperson for Sheehy's campaign said, "The choice is clear this election. Tim Sheehy is A rated by the NRA because he’ll always protect our Second Amendment rights and Jon Tester is F rated by the NRA because he supports the Obama-Biden-Harris radical liberal gun control agenda."
The Montana Senate seat is considered Republicans' No. 1 target in the upcoming Senate elections, aside from West Virginia, which is expected to easily turn red after independent Sen. Joe Manchin's retirement. Tester's race is also believed to be the Senate GOP's key to the majority in 2025.
A top political handicapper, the Cook Political Report, has long rated the race between Tester and former Navy SEAL Tim Sheehy as a "toss up."
However, another respected handicapper recently shifted the matchup to "leans Republican." Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia's Center for Politics explained the change, pointing to a new poll from the AARP showing Sheehy with a six-point 51%-45% advantage over Tester in a two-way race.
In an expanded field, Sheehy still defeated Tester, 49%-41%.
