The US Congress lost its last farmer-representative when Jon Tester (D-MT) lost this month to Tim Sheehy, a Republican who parachuted in from Minnesota.
Because the media they consume has a vested interest in lying to them and bankrupting them, and they lack media-literacy to see it. Because it’s really easy to be told that immigrants are stealing from you, and it’s really hard to explain that tariffs and trade wars will destroy soy bean farms. Because it’s really easy to lie to people and make them scared and angry.
Montana is MAGA. It went from purple to red during the great self-sorting of COVID. So Tester was in a weak seat which he held onto in the last election because the libertarians split the right. This time, the GOP poured in many millions to sway the vote. And now Montana is governed by a bunch of Californians and Minnesotans.