Jon Tester Bio
Raymond Jon Tester (born August 21, 1956) is an American farmer and retired politician who served as a United States senator from Montana from 2007 to 2025. A member of the Democratic Party, he is widely recognized as a moderate with deep rural ties to the agricultural communities of north-central Montana. During his Senate tenure he supported the Affordable Care Act, backed abortion rights, and chaired and served on committees focused on veterans and Indian affairs.
Before reaching the U.S. Senate, Tester served in the Montana Senate from 1999 to 2007 and was president of that body from 2005 to 2007. He won narrow reelection victories in 2012 and 2018 before being defeated in his 2024 bid for a fourth term by Republican Tim Sheehy. Following his departure from Congress, Tester joined MS NOW in May 2025 as a political analyst and continues to operate his family farm in Big Sandy, Montana.
Early Life and Background
Jon Tester was born on August 21, 1956, in Havre, Montana, one of three sons of David O. Tester, who was born in Utah, and Helen Marie (née Pearson), who was born in North Dakota. On his father’s side, he is descended from Mormon pioneers, with English ancestry from his father and Swedish ancestry from his mother. He grew up in Chouteau County, near the town of Big Sandy, on land that his grandfather homesteaded in 1912. At the age of nine, Tester lost the middle three fingers of his left hand in a meat-grinder accident.
Tester graduated in 1978 from the University of Providence, then called the College of Great Falls, earning a Bachelor of Arts in music. After college, he worked for two years as a music teacher in the Big Sandy School District before returning to his family’s farm and custom butcher shop. In the 1980s, he and his wife switched the operation from conventional to organic farming. Tester spent five years as chairman of the Big Sandy School Board of Trustees and also served on the Big Sandy Soil Conservation Service Committee and the Chouteau County Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service Committee.
Path to US Politics
Tester’s entry into public life began at the local level when he joined the Big Sandy school board, a position he held for about a decade. In 1998, he was elected to represent the 45th district in the Montana Senate, beginning a state-level legislative career that would last nearly a decade. He was elected minority whip for the 2001 session and was reelected in 2002 with 71 percent of the vote, becoming minority leader in 2003.
After redistricting in 2004, Tester moved to the 15th district as a holdover senator. In 2005, he was elected president of the Montana Senate, the chief presiding officer of the state’s upper chamber, marking a transition for Montana Democrats as they moved into majority leadership for the first time in more than a decade. Term limits prevented him from running for the State Senate for a third consecutive term, setting the stage for his 2006 U.S. Senate campaign.
Jon Tester Career
Early Career (1998–2006)
During his years in the Montana Senate, Tester cited accomplishments including a prescription drug benefit program, reinstatement of the Made in Montana promotion program, a law encouraging renewable energy development, and a bill that led to a historic increase in public school funding. His rise from local school board member to president of the Montana Senate demonstrated his ability to connect with rural voters across party lines.
In May 2005, Tester announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate seat held by Republican incumbent Conrad Burns. He entered the race as the second Democrat, behind state auditor John Morrison, but won the June 2006 Democratic nomination by more than 25 percentage points in a six-way primary. An extensive grass-roots effort in the closing weeks of the primary helped him build momentum heading into the general election.
U.S. Senate Elections (2006–2018)
In November 2006, Tester defeated incumbent Conrad Burns with 199,845 votes, or 49.2 percent, compared with Burns’s 196,283 votes, or 48.3 percent. The race was one of the closest Senate contests of that year and was confirmed the day after Election Day. During his first term, he was given a seat on the Appropriations Committee in 2009 and became chairman of the Banking Committee’s Securities, Insurance, and Investment Subcommittee in 2013.
Tester sought reelection in 2012 and faced Republican U.S. Representative Denny Rehberg. The race was seen as pivotal for both parties, with Tester’s support for the Affordable Care Act and the 2009 stimulus playing central roles. On Election Day, he defeated Rehberg 49 percent to 45 percent. In 2018, he won a third term by defeating Montana State Auditor Matt Rosendale, 50 percent to 47 percent, crossing the 50 percent threshold for the first time in his Senate career despite four campaign visits to the state by President Donald Trump.
2024 Reelection Campaign and Defeat
After reports that he was considering retirement, Tester announced in February 2023 that he would seek a fourth Senate term, with control of the Senate majority at stake. He was one of the Democratic Party’s last remaining red-state U.S. senators, and Montana was one of five states with Senate delegations split between the two major parties. Trump had carried Montana by 16 percentage points in 2020, and strategists in both parties viewed the race as a test of Tester’s authenticity and connection with local voters.
In July 2024, Tester called for President Joe Biden to withdraw from the 2024 presidential election, and in August he announced that he would not endorse Kamala Harris. In the 2024 general election, Tester lost to Republican nominee Tim Sheehy, receiving 46 percent of the vote to Sheehy’s 53 percent, ending his 18-year Senate career.
Notable Events and Milestones
Among the signature moments of Tester’s tenure was his presence on Capitol Hill on January 6, 2021, when he was evacuated from the Hart Senate Office Building during the breach of the U.S. Capitol. He called the storming a despicable and dangerous attack on democracy and blamed then-President Trump for instigating it. He voted to convict Trump during both impeachment trials and was the first Democrat from a red state to oppose Gina Haspel’s nomination as CIA Director in 2018, citing her role in Bush-era interrogation programs.
Jon Tester Political Positions
Tester is widely regarded as a moderate Democrat whose voting record has at times diverged from his party’s base. A New York Times profile after his 2006 election described him as a pro-gun, anti-big-business prairie pragmatist whose life was defined by his family’s Montana land. FiveThirtyEight found that he voted with President Trump’s position 30 percent of the time during Trump’s first term, and through January 2023 he had voted in line with President Biden’s position 91 percent of the time. In 2023, the Lugar Center ranked Tester tenth among senators for bipartisanship.
Healthcare, Economy, and Environment
Tester supported the Affordable Care Act in 2009 and, in 2017, said Democrats should consider a single-payer health care system while criticizing the Republican reform effort as a train wreck. He was one of at least 11 Democrats to support the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act, which partially repealed Dodd-Frank provisions for small and regional lenders, becoming the first Democrat endorsed by Friends of Traditional Banking. On environmental issues, he tried to revive a bill placing 700,000 acres of wilderness in light-on-the-land logging projects to support the timber industry.
Gun Rights, Immigration, and Civil Rights
The National Rifle Association Political Victory Fund gave Tester an A-minus grade in 2012, downgraded to a D in 2018 after he voted against confirming Brett Kavanaugh. He voted against a 2016 Democratic proposal for universal background checks but supported banning gun sales to people on the terrorist watch list. He voted against the DREAM Act in 2010 and co-sponsored the 2018 Border and Port Security Act. On civil rights, he voted for the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Repeal Act of 2010, supported same-sex marriage in 2013, voted for the Respect for Marriage Act of 2022, and voted to confirm Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court.
Jon Tester Family
Family Background and Personal Life
Tester is one of three sons of David O. Tester and Helen Marie (née Pearson). He is descended from Mormon pioneers on his father’s side, with English ancestry from his father and Swedish ancestry from his mother. He grew up on the family farmstead near Big Sandy, Montana, that his grandfather had homesteaded in 1912, and the land has remained central to his identity throughout his public career.
Marriage and Children
During his senior year in college, Tester married Sharla Bitz, and the couple has three children. The Testers continue to operate their organic farm in Big Sandy, and before his election to the Senate he had never lived more than two hours away from it. In addition to the Montana farm, the family has owned a home in Washington, D.C., where Tester has been known to bring his own butchered meat from home.