guest: they have incumbent strength, jon tester is popular.e has an appeal in montana that has persisted even as the state has become significantly more republican. talk about a purple state, montana used to be a true purple state. in the 18 years since tester was elected, the state has really become a republican stronghold. he is still popular. he has an appeal as a farmer. the way that he looks, the way he talks, it connects with voters. his republican opponent is relatively untested. he is a first-time candidate, navy seal veteran, very wealthy, runs a business, but he has made some stumbles that we see in first-time campaigns. he has given democrats an opportunity to litigate aspects of his military record, his business record, and perhaps most crucially he is not a montana native. he only moved to the state in the last decade. that is a strategy that tester has used successfully in previous runs, painting his opponents as interlopers or out-of-staters. democrats have a tough challenge there. in ohio, a similar story. sherrod brown is a st