Senator Jon Tester’s new $14.5 million ad campaign features footage of the southern border wall and boasts that the Montana Democrat “worked with Republicans” to “target fentanyl traffickers and add hundreds of new border patrol agents.”
There’s just one problem: Tester lobbied against a border wall in 2017 and voted against amendments that funded anti-fentanyl programs.
Tester was a vocal critic of former president Donald Trump’s plan to build a wall on the southern border, calling the idea “ineffective and wasteful.” Tester has since said he supports erecting barriers where it “does make sense,” but he has not put forward any legislation that would do so.
In August 2022, Tester voted against an amendment that would have provided $500 million to Customs and Border Protection for opioid and narcotic detection. A year prior, he voted against an amendment that would have diverted $300 million in unused COVID stimulus money for a similar program.
Tester’s latest campaign is part of his campaign’s effort to present the senator—widely seen as the most vulnerable incumbent up for election in November—as a moderate. Tester votes with President Joe Biden more than 90 percent of the time, a record that could hurt his chances at reelection in a state Trump won twice by double digits.
The Montana Democrat’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
Although Tester’s ad says the senator “fought to stop President Biden from letting migrants stay in America instead of remain in Mexico,” he has voted twice against reinstating the Trump-era program that forces asylum seekers to wait for their court dates in Mexico. Now, Tester says, he’ll “do whatever it takes to keep Montana safe.”
Tester is an outspoken advocate for the bipartisan Senate immigration bill, which he says will “shut down the border.” His Democratic colleague Sen. Chris Murphy (Conn.), who coauthored the bill, said in February that “the border never closes” under the law.
Immigration has emerged as a top issue for voters ahead of November’s presidential election. More than 5 million illegal aliens have entered the United States under Biden, which has put tremendous strain on both city and local governments.
Earlier this month, Tester voted in lockstep with Senate Democrats to kill the impeachment trial against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. In a statement after his vote, Tester said that “what’s happening at our southern border is completely unacceptable” but called the trial an example of “partisan games.”
