A Crucial Senate Race Could Come Down to One Question: Do I Trust You?

In Montana, Republicans are trying to paint Senator Jon Tester as a Washington sellout, while their own candidate, Tim Sheehy, faces scrutiny over his credibility and how he sustained a gunshot wound.

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Tim Sheehy, the leading Republican candidate for Senate in Montana, at a campaign event last month in Missoula that featured Donald Trump Jr. Mr. Sheehy has faced scrutiny over his conflicting accounts of how and when a bullet became lodged in his arm.

By Kellen Browning

Photographs by Tailyr Irvine

Reporting from Missoula and Kalispell, Mont.

May 17, 2024, 5:02 a.m. ET

The rural dirt farmer versus the decorated Navy SEAL.

The longtime Democratic incumbent in a deep-red state versus the youthful conservative handpicked by Republicans to topple him.

The man who lost three fingers to a meat grinder versus the man who got shot — or maybe didn’t — in Afghanistan.

Montana’s high-profile race for Senate, which could decide the balance of power in Washington, is shaping up as a fight to see whose unique biography can best earn the trust of the state’s wary voters.

Republicans believe that the Democrat they are trying to defeat, Senator Jon Tester, 67, is vulnerable to attacks that he has lost touch with Montanans and become a Washington insider. Democrats see plenty to exploit in the background of the likely Republican nominee, Tim Sheehy, 38, a wealthy businessman and military veteran who grew up outside the state and has offered conflicting accounts of how he sustained a years-old gunshot wound.

Voters all over the country have long bristled at candidates who come across as transactional or fake. But this year, questions about authenticity have pervaded an unusually large number of Senate races as Republicans try to seize back the chamber.

ImageSenator Jon Tester of Montana, center, is one of the most vulnerable Democratic incumbents, with his party confronting an unfriendly map this year.Credit…Pete Marovich for The New York Times

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