The SEAL vs. the Chairman: Why Veterans Issues Matter in the Montana Senate Race

One of the first ads aired by Senate Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Jon Tester's reelection campaign focused on his work passing the PACT Act.

Tim Sheehy's first ad in the Montana Senate race prominently featured his background as a Navy SEAL.

The path for control of the Senate next year runs through Montana -- and the path to winning Montana could hinge on veterans and military issues.

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Issues such as the economy, immigration and health care have been more prominent in the Montana Senate race than veterans policy, as is true in basically every race nationally. But both candidates have taken unmistakable, if somewhat simple, steps to court veteran voters, Montana politics experts told Military.com. The state has the third-highest veterans population per capita in the country at 9% of Montana's adults.

"Veterans issues, they're kind of a great selling point," said Paul Pope, a political science professor at Montana State University Billings. "Almost everyone presents it very positively in almost every circumstance. So it's sort of like the badge of honor that says, 'Hey, look at me; I'm worthy of this office.'"

With a Republican expected to win the Senate race in West Virginia this year and Democrats facing an uphill climb to flip any GOP seats blue, Democrats must win every other seat they currently hold in order to have a chance at retaining control of the Senate. Winning every seat they hold now besides West Virginia would make the party breakdown in the Senate 50-50, meaning control of the upper chamber would come down to which party wins the White House since the vice president is the tiebreaking vote.

By contrast, Republicans only have to flip one seat in addition to West Virginia in order to gain a 51-49 majority in the Senate.

That math has turned the race between Democrat Tester and Republican Sheehy in Montana into a crucial battle. Indicative of the importance of the Senate race, GOP presidential nominee former President Donald Trump campaigned there in August despite the fact that Trump is far ahead in Montana.

Tester's main veterans-related pitch to voters has been the PACT Act, rolling out ads and endorsements highlighting his work on the sweeping toxic exposure legislation. Sheehy's has been his service as a Navy SEAL, something he mentions in almost every ad -- though some of his descriptions of his military service have come under question.

The two candidates also recently sparred about the direction of the Department of Veterans Affairs during their second and final debate before the Nov. 5 election.

"VA, it's not perfect, but it's come a long ways over the time I've been in the United States Senate," Tester said at the debate. "Take a look at the number of clinics that have been built around the state. Take a look at the number of additional doctors we've got in the state and nurses."

"I'm tired of hearing politicians use veterans as a political prop," Sheehy responded. "Our veterans are not getting the care they need from the VA. That's been the case for a long time, and as a member of the VA committee for many, many years, Sen. Tester knows that. We are not meeting the needs, and building more VA clinics isn't the answer. Building VA clinics we can't fill isn't the answer. He's resisted community care options in the VA. When veterans groups have come in and tried to enhance community care to give veterans more control over their health care instead of having it controlled by the VA, he's worked against that."

As the debate moderators tried to change the topic, Tester retorted that Sheehy's comments on community care were "total horse," leaving the rest of the expletive unsaid. Tester was a co-sponsor of the most recent law that expanded private health-care options for veterans, the 2018 Mission Act.

Until recently, the Montana Senate race was considered a toss-up. But recent polls have shown Sheehy pulling ahead, causing election forecasters such as Cook Political Report and Sabato's Crystal Ball to reclassify the state as "leans Republican." Several polls in August and September showed Sheehy ahead by up to 8%, according to the political data analysis website 538.

The large veterans population in Montana means the community has gotten nods on the campaign trail, but both candidates could be doing more, Pope said.

"Veterans issues should be an easy, low-hanging fruit kind of thing to bring up, and they're not," Pope said. "Sheehy talks about being a veteran, but it's very cursory. He doesn't go into any depth. And Tester brings up the PACT Act, but he doesn't really go into any depth."

While Montana veterans face some unique challenges from the state's vast rural lands, their top concerns are largely the same as other veterans around the country: getting their disability benefits claims approved and making sure they aren't scammed in the process, said Jeff Schepp, the state quartermaster for the Montana Veterans of Foreign Wars.

Schepp, who stressed his comments were not meant to take a position on Sheehy or Tester, said he frequently hears from members in his organization that more needs to be done to alleviate the VA disability claims backlog, particularly after the influx of claims since the PACT Act.

Another major issue for Montana veterans that could be addressed by officials in Washington is so-called claims sharks that charge veterans exorbitant fees to help file disability claims, an issue that has also been supercharged since the PACT Act, Schepp added. It's illegal to charge veterans to file a claim, but a lucrative industry has taken advantage of loopholes and lax enforcement to do just that.

"There's so many people that have been denied claims throughout the years, and finally, when they opened it up, there was such a deluge, just a dam was opened up," Schepp said of the hundreds of thousands of benefits claims filed since the PACT Act.

Tester, the top Democrat on the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee since 2017 and chairman since 2021, has pointed to those newly approved PACT Act claims as he seeks to make the case to voters to give him a fourth term.

In June, Tester's campaign launched "Veterans for Tester," a coalition the campaign says includes 150 veterans from across the state. The launch included a series of ads that cited Tester's work on the PACT Act, veterans mental health care and getting new VA clinics opened in Montana.

Campaign materials have largely looked back at what he's done rather than forward at what he would do if reelected, but a spokesperson for Tester's Senate office highlighted unfinished work such as a bill that would give all veterans full access to military retirement pay and VA disability benefits.

A campaign spokesperson also vowed that Tester "will never stop fighting to make sure our country upholds its promise to our veterans."

"As chairman of the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee, Jon fights tooth and nail to improve access to quality health care and benefits for Montana's nearly 100,000 veterans," campaign spokesperson Monica Robinson said in an emailed statement to Military.com. "Jon is honored by the outpouring of support from Montana veterans across the state, and he will always have their backs."

Meanwhile, Sheehy mentions his military service in ads about everything from immigration to the economy. The retired SEAL lieutenant has said he was inspired to run for office after the chaotic U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.

Sheehy's campaign did not respond to requests seeking comment for this story.

Sheehy, who led an aerial firefighting company prior to stepping down earlier this year to focus on campaigning, commissioned into the Navy from the Naval Academy in 2008 and served until 2014, according to details of his record provided by the Navy.

His awards include a Bronze Star with a combat "V" and a Purple Heart, according to the records.

Those basic aspects of his service are undisputed, but several news reports have cast doubt on details he has recounted about his time in the military.

While Sheehy has talked on the campaign trail about getting shot in the arm in Afghanistan, The Washington Post reported in April that he told a National Park Service ranger in 2015 that he accidentally shot himself during a family visit to Glacier National Park. Sheehy told the Post he sought medical treatment for falling and that he lied to the park ranger when the bullet wound was discovered, because the Afghanistan shooting was friendly fire and he didn't want to get his former teammates in trouble.

In May, the Daily Beast reported that Sheehy has spoken inconsistently about why he left the Navy. And in August, the Daily Montanan reported that while Sheehy claimed his military training included parachuting into Glacier National Park, the Navy has no record of that happening, and the park said parachuting there is illegal with no exception for the military.

"If there's an issue that is giving some veterans a negative view of Sheehy, it's potentially that one," Eric Raile, a political science professor at Montana State University, said of the questions about Sheehy's service record.

Still, like many issues these days, reactions to those reports are being filtered through a partisan lens, and the Washington Post story "happened long enough ago that it's not much a part of [voters'] evaluations any longer," Raile added.

Policywise, Sheehy has offered few specific proposals on veterans issues. Mentioning that veterans "are still struggling to access the care they need in a timely manner," his campaign website promises that "Montana veterans will have no bigger advocate for them than by electing a fellow veteran to fight for them and fulfill the promise our nation made to them."

His comments at the debate against Tester suggest Sheehy would advocate for expanded access to community care, which allows veterans to see non-VA doctors using VA funding. Sheehy has been endorsed by Concerned Veterans for America Action, a conservative advocacy group that supports expanding private health-care options for veterans.

The light policy details may not matter to voters, experts said.

"Sheehy's status and his identity as a veteran is something that resonates more with people, because people are very much tuned into identities in the current polarized political environment," Raile said. "Whereas Tester is working on behalf of veterans, but there's a little more of a leap to say this is a legislator who is doing things that help veterans. That's a little less obvious to people."

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