Fresh Off the Farm in Montana, a Senator-to-Be | NYT

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Fresh Off the Farm in Montana, a Senator-to-Be
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“He’s a small farmer from the homestead,’’ a friend says of Jon Tester. “That’s absolutely who he is.”

By TIMOTHY EGAN
Published: November 13, 2006

GREAT FALLS, Mont., Nov. 9 — When he joins the United States Senate in January, big Jon Tester — who is just under 300 pounds in his boots — will most likely be the only person in the world’s most exclusive club who knows how to butcher a cow or grease a combine.


“It’s always been tight, trying to make a living on that farm,” said Jon Tester, the third generation of his family on the land. He plans to return from Washington several times a month.

All his life, Mr. Tester, 50, has lived no more than two hours from his farm, an infinity of flat on the windswept expanse of north-central Montana, hard by the Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation.

For all the talk about the new Democrats swept into office on Tuesday, the senator-elect from Montana truly is your grandfather’s Democrat — a pro-gun, anti-big-business prairie pragmatist whose life is defined by the treeless patch of hard Montana dirt that has been in the family since 1916.

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