Raymond Jon Tester was born on August 21,1956 and is an American farmer and politician serving as the senior United States senator from Montana, a seat he has held since 2007.
51 Facts About Jon Tester
2.
Jon Tester served in the Montana Senate from 1999 to 2007, and as its president for his last two years in the chamber.
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Jon Tester was first elected in 2006, defeating Republican incumbent Conrad Burns in one of the closest Senate races of that year.
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Jon Tester narrowly won reelection in 2012 against US Representative Denny Rehberg, and in 2018 against Montana State Auditor Matt Rosendale.
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Jon Tester was born in Havre, Montana, one of three sons of Helen Marie and David O Jon Tester.
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Jon Tester is the descendant of Mormon pioneers on his father's side.
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Jon Tester's father was of English descent and his mother was of Swedish ancestry.
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Jon Tester grew up in Chouteau County, near the town of Big Sandy, Montana, on land that his grandfather homesteaded in 1912.
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Jon Tester then 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.
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Jon Tester spent five years as chairman of the Big Sandy School Board of Trustees and was on the Big Sandy Soil Conservation Service Committee and the Chouteau County Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service Committee.
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Jon Tester was first elected to represent the 45th district in the Montana Senate in 1998, after his neighbor, a Republican State Senator, decided not to run for reelection.
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Jon Tester was elected the minority whip for the 2001 session.
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In 2005, Jon Tester was elected president of the Montana Senate, the chief presiding officer of the Montana Legislature's upper chamber.
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Term limits prohibited Jon Tester from running for State Senate for a third consecutive term.
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Jon Tester cited a prescription drug benefit program, reinstatement of the "Made in Montana" promotion program, a law to encourage renewable energy development, and his involvement with a bill that led to an historic increase in public school funding as accomplishments while in office.
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Jon Tester announced his candidacy in May 2005 for the US Senate seat held by Republican incumbent Senator Conrad Burns.
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Jon Tester was the second Democrat to jump into the race, after state auditor John Morrison.
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In June 2006, Jon Tester won the Democratic nomination by more than 25 percentage points in a six-way primary.
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Jon Tester successfully ran for reelection to a second term against Republican US Congressman Denny Rehberg.
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Jon Tester's race was seen as a pivotal one for both parties seeking the Senate majority.
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Jon Tester said that he stood by his votes on both, saying that the healthcare legislation contained "a lot of good stuff".
22.
The Los Angeles Times noted that Jon Tester diverged from his party on matters such as gun rights and illegal immigration.
23.
Jon Tester successfully ran for a third term against Republican Montana State Auditor Matt Rosendale, eventually winning a high-turnout election by over 15,000 votes and crossing the 50 percent threshold in vote totals for the first time in three Senate elections.
24.
President Donald Trump made a particular effort to unseat Jon Tester, traveling to Montana four times over the preceding months.
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Jon Tester's re-election is considered pivotal for Democrats to maintain their Senate majority for the 119th United States Congress.
26.
In 2013, Jon Tester became chairman of the Banking Committee's Securities, Insurance, and Investment Subcommittee.
27.
Jon Tester was on Capitol Hill for the 2021 United States Electoral College vote count on January 6,2021, when Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol.
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Jon Tester was in his office in the Hart Senate Office Building when the Capitol was breached.
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Jon Tester called the storming a "despicable and dangerous attack on our democracy" and "a coup by domestic terrorists", and blamed Trump for instigating it.
30.
Jon Tester called fellow Montana senator Steve Daines an "enabler" of the attack, as Daines supported Trump's unproven voter fraud claims.
31.
CQ Roll Call reported that Jon Tester voted with Trump's position approximately half of the time in 2017 and 2018.
32.
On December 18,2010, Jon Tester voted in favor of the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010.
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In 2011, Jon Tester was one of two Democratic senators to filibuster the American Jobs Act.
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In January 2018, Jon Tester was the only Democratic senator from a Republican-leaning state to oppose a stopgap funding measure to end a three-day government shutdown and reopen the federal government.
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In 2018, Jon Tester became one of the Democrats in the Senate to support the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief and Consumer Protection Act, a bill that partially repealed Dodd-Frank and relaxed key banking regulations.
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Jon Tester became the first Democrat endorsed by Friends of Traditional Banking, a political action committee that had previously endorsed Republicans.
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In December 2010, Jon Tester voted against the DREAM Act, which would have created a pathway to citizenship for the foreign-born children of illegal immigrants.
38.
On February 4,2021, Jon Tester voted in favor of preventing any legislation that would allow undocumented immigrants access to COVID-19 pandemic financial support.
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Jon Tester supported the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, voting for it in December 2009.
40.
Jon Tester voted for the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010.
41.
In October 2019, Jon Tester was one of 27 senators to sign a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer advocating the passage of the Community Health Investment, Modernization, and Excellence Act, which was set to expire the following month.
42.
Jon Tester voted against Trump's nominees Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett.
43.
Jon Tester voted to confirm Joe Biden's nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson.
44.
Jon Tester proposed a constitutional amendment to reverse the decision, and argued that the ruling had a bad impact on American democracy.
45.
In February 2021, Jon Tester was one of seven Democratic US Senators to join Republicans in blocking a ban of hydraulic fracturing, commonly known as fracking.
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In 2016, Jon Tester voted against a Democrat-sponsored proposal that would have required background checks for purchases at gun shows and for purchases of guns online nationwide.
47.
On September 28,2018, Tester announced that he would vote against confirming Brett Kavanaugh as an Associate Justice, citing among other reasons "concerns that Judge Kavanaugh defended the PATRIOT Act instead of Montanans' privacy", as Kavanaugh had helped the Bush Administration craft a program of mass domestic surveillance and ruled in favor of increased government surveillance under the PATRIOT Act in Klayman v Obama.
48.
On May 20,2015, Jon Tester was one of seven Senate Democrats to join Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky in his 10-hour filibuster against reauthorizing the PATRIOT Act.
49.
In May 2018, Jon Tester said that he would not support Gina Haspel's nomination to become CIA Director.
50.
Johnny Isakson, the Republican chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, defended Jon Tester, saying he had no problem with Jon Tester's handling of Jackson's nomination.
51.
Jon Tester voted to convict Trump during both of his impeachment trials.