Exclusive: Former President Trump has revealed he is targeting two Democratic state senators who vote Republican in 2024, sources told Fox News Digital.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-Lausanne, called on President Trump at a meeting on Capitol Hill on Thursday to impress upon lawmakers the importance of taking back the Senate in 2024, according to a person who was there. Graham said there are several Democrats in the Senate who are in a precarious position and have backgrounds very similar to President Biden’s.
President Trump has said Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Democratic Sen. Jon Tester of Montana are at the top of his list of Democrats he will try to oust in 2024. Both Democrats face tough re-election races in Republican-leaning states that President Trump won in 2020.
“They opposed everything I did while I was president, and now they’re talking like Republicans,” Trump said, according to the source.
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From left: Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.), former President Donald Trump, and Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio). (Kevin Dietsch/Stephen Hirsch Poole)
Both Brown and Tester appear to be distancing themselves from President Biden as polls continue to show him trailing in several key battleground states.
Senator Tester released a memo in May in which he said he would “stand with President Biden and his administration” on several issues, including the border and COVID-19 response. However, Senator Tester’s Republican opponent, Tim Sheehy, previously told Fox News Digital that Senator Tester has a habit of shifting his tone to appear more moderate in election years.
Asked about Trump’s focus on winning Tester’s seat in 2024, a spokesman for Tester said the former president “signed more than 20 of Jon Tester’s bills into law.”
“Jon Tester is doing the right thing for Montana, which is why President Trump signed more than 20 of his bills into law during his presidency to support our veterans, crack down on government waste and fraud, and support our first responders,” Monica Robinson, a spokesperson for Montana Pro-Tester, told Fox News Digital in a statement.
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Sen. Jon Tester (D-Montana) spoke to reporters while walking through the Capitol in Washington, D.C. on February 5. (Anna Moneymaker)
“You know what he’s been doing, five of the six years he’s been a staunch liberal, a staunch progressive. [Senate Majority Leader Chuck] “I criticize Schumer, I criticize Biden, I criticize every other progressive in the country,” Sheehy told Fox in November, “and then in an election year they go back to the center and try to act like a moderate.”
Brown has also come under fire from his Republican opponents for his nearly 100% voter record for President Biden.
When asked about Trump’s comments, Senator Brown’s campaign told Fox News Digital that Brown “worked with President Trump during his administration.”
“Sherrod will work with anyone when it’s right for Ohio, including working with President Trump to renegotiate NAFTA, pass legislation to lower prescription drug costs and ensure police officers have the resources they need to keep themselves safe and keep fentanyl out of Ohio communities,” a Brown campaign spokesperson told Fox News Digital in a statement.
Sen. Sherrod Brown, Democrat of Ohio, during a Senate vote at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC on January 23. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
“Sherrod Brown travels around Ohio telling voters he’s a moderate, when in reality he voted 99% for Joe Biden and consistently betrays the working people of Ohio,” Reagan McCarthy, communications director for the Bernie Moreno campaign, told Fox News Digital.
“Brown supported every single reckless spending plan that has led to soaring inflation, and voted for Biden’s attack on American energy with his green energy plan, enabling Biden’s open border invasion. We look forward to exposing his left-wing record and ousting him in November.”
brown He told Politico Earlier this year, Trump said he would “run my own race” and “stick to my own brand,” but also said he was “not going to run away from Biden.”
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The Cook Political Report has listed the Senate races in Ohio and Montana, both of which Trump won handily in 2020, as close races, and many experts believe that Republicans’ chances of regaining control of the Senate hinge on those elections.
