Montana 2024 primary results: Dem Sen. Tester, GOP's Sheehy projected for Senate wins

Tester is a three-term senator.

June 4, 2024, 10:47 PM

Senator Jon Tester, ABC News reports, is projected to win the Democratic nomination for Senate in Montana, which held its presidential primary for Democrats and Republicans on Tuesday.

ABC News also reports that Republican Tim Sheehy is projected to win the GOP Senate primary in Montana.

The two wins will make for a high-stakes general election Senate race in Montana.

Tester is one of two red-state Senators aiming to hold onto their seats in places where Trump won the presidency in 2020. General election attacks have already started between Tester and Sheehy, with the Republican cutting an ad this week that links Tester to Trump’s conviction: "Jon Tester supported Joe Biden's witch hunt,” the video says.

Meanwhile, in the presidential race, President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump are projected to win the Democratic and Republican primaries, respectively, ABC News reports.

They clinched their parties' nominations earlier this year.

ABC News reports Greg Gianforte is projected to win the Montana Republican Gubernatorial primary, with Ryan Busse projected to win the Montana Democratic Gubernatorial primary.

Polls were open in the state from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Montana voters were not required to register with a political party. They could choose to vote in whichever primary they wanted.

State significance

Montana does not allocate delegates from the Republican presidential primary. Instead, its 31 delegates will proceed to the party's national convention in the summer unbound, where they will be able to vote for the candidate of their choice.

There are 20 delegates up for grabs in the Democratic presidential primary, which will be allocated proportionally based on Tuesday's results.

While Montana has elected some notable Democrats for other offices, like Sen. Tester, the state is reliably Republican in presidential races. Trump handily won the state in the 2016 and 2020 general elections.