One of the most expensive U.S. Senate races in the country is just one state away in Montana.
Political finance data site Open Secrets reports the race between Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Tester and Republican challenger Tim Sheehy is the third most expensive race in the nation this election cycle with $57 million raised between the two candidates and their three third-party opponents.
Through the end of June, Tester has raised $42.9 million while Sheehy raised $13.9 million. Tester has spent much more of his own money at $31.2 million, while Sheehy has spent $10.7 million.
Final Push
A large chunk of the overall amount of money spent in the Tester-Sheehy race has happened since the start of September, with political action committees ramping up their advertising spending heading into the home stretch of the campaign. Sheehy has been much more dependent on this source of money than his own fundraising.
Over the last week, TV commercials for both candidates have played almost nonstop on Montana television stations and millions of dollars have also been spent on digital web campaigns. On a single day last week, around $3.6 million was spent on TV ads for the two candidates.
In total, roughly $62.8 million has been spent on the race through Monday by outside political action committees acting independently from the candidates with no spending limits, according to Federal Election Commission data and the Montana Free Press.
This level of spending dwarfs what was spent in the 2022 race between former congresswoman Liz Cheney and U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman, which set Wyoming records at the time. Cheney raised about $17 million over the course of her campaign.
Groups supporting Tester have spent $28.4 million through Monday, about $10 million of which has come since the start of the month.
Pro-Sheehy groups have spent $34.4 million on his behalf, about $9 million of that coming since the beginning of the month.
Who Is It Coming From?
Last Best Place PAC has been one of the biggest spenders in the race, supporting Tester with $4.2 million since Aug. 30 and $17.01 million overall since the campaign began. From this total, Last Best Place spent $1.5 million on a TV ad buy on the day of last week’s presidential debate.
According to the Montana Free Press, in February the Campaign Legal Center filed a Federal Election Commission complaint against Last Best Place for running ads attacking Sheehy without filing a legally required independent expenditure report.
The treasurer of this PAC was the state budget director of former Montana Republican Gov. Marc Racicot.
More Jobs Less Government has spent $18.3 million on Sheehy’s behalf. One of the donors for this group is Henry True of Casper-based oil and gas producer True Companies, who gave it $25,000 in 2023.
Allen Schwarzman, the billionaire CEO of Blackstone Group, gave $5 million to Sheehy’s campaign.
The Senate Leadership Fund has been one of the busiest groups working on Sheehy’s behalf in September, spending about $4.5 million since the start of the month. This included a $2.1 million TV ad placement against Tester last Tuesday on the day of the presidential debate and $2.03 million ad buy Sept. 3.
The Leadership Fund describes itself on its website as being dedicated to bringing a Republican majority to the Senate.
Its president is Steven Law, who previously served as deputy secretary of labor for former President George W. Bush and the chief legal officer and general counsel at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Leo Wolfson can be reached at leo@cowboystatedaily.com.
