*Story first published Feb. 22, 2023

Liberal Montana Senator Jon Tester announced that he IS running for re-election in 2024. This race was already expected to be one of the top targets for national Republicans in a state that has turned solid red in recent years.

"It's official. I'm running for reelection," Tester's campaign tweeted out at 5:35 a.m. on Wednesday morning.

When I first saw the news this AM I said this:

This explains why he is now pretending to be moderate again...and pretending to be tough on China. Liberal Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) says he is running for re-election.

Nicole in Columbus, one of our radio listeners, also gave this immediate reaction via Twitter:

He (Tester) sounds like a broken record, constantly repeating the same rhetoric, "I farm, I ranch"... except he doesn't stand for agriculture. He doesn't stand for Montana, he doesn't stand for US. He stands for Washington, China, and Ukraine. It's time he learns how to fall...

Shortly after the start of the 6 a.m. hour on the radio, I went down the hall to fill up my coffee cup and shared the news with "The Breakfast Flakes" who have now been on the air on Cat Country in Billings for 35 years. When I told Paul Mushaben that Tester is running for re-election, he said, "Tehran Jon? Oh yeah"...with the expected eye roll.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), which is chaired by Montana Senator Steve Daines (R-MT) sent out this reaction shortly after 6 a.m.:

The Tester-Biden agenda has given Montanans rising crime, higher taxes, and an open southern border that is flooding communities with deadly fentanyl. Montanans are going to send Joe Biden’s favorite Senator packing in 2024. – NRSC Spokeswoman Maggie Abboud

What's your reaction? Send me a note via Twitter or e-mail aaron (at) MontanaTalks.com

LOOK: See how much gasoline cost the year you started driving

To find out more about how has the price of gas changed throughout the years, Stacker ran the numbers on the cost of a gallon of gasoline for each of the last 84 years. Using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (released in April 2020), we analyzed the average price for a gallon of unleaded regular gasoline from 1976 to 2020 along with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for unleaded regular gasoline from 1937 to 1976, including the absolute and inflation-adjusted prices for each year.

Read on to explore the cost of gas over time and rediscover just how much a gallon was when you first started driving.

 

 

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