Grounded
A Senator's Lessons on Winning Back Rural America
by Jon Tester


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BOOK REVIEW by OnTheIssues.org:

Grounded: A Senator's Lessons on Winning Back Rural America is a chance to see what makes John Tester tick. A twice-elected Democratic Senator from the very red state of Montana, he tells his life story (with Aaron Murphy, who has served as Tester's chief of staff) and takes the reader behind the scenes of his Senate work.

A farmer who still goes back home from Washington nearly every weekend, he's focused on practical solutions. Thus when Democrats were leery of tinkering with the Dodd-Frank financial reforms for fear of loosening standards for Wall Street, Tester stepped up because HIS concern was the strangling of local community-based banks, "[W]hen a bank leaves town [i]t is just a matter of time before that community shrivels up." [p,288]

He doesn't shy away from some of the issues and stories that put him in the national spotlight, including his opposition to Dr. Ronny Johnson being appointed by then-President Trump to head the Veteran's Administration. Tester learned from several sources of stories that Johnson had been nicknamed "Candyman" for being loose in distributing prescription drugs and that there were accusations he had been drinking on the job as White House physician. Johnson (now a Congressman from Texas) withdrew his name when Tester went public, earning Tester the enmity of Trump.

He also reveals how in spite of being a gun owner with a solid pro-gun record he came to break with the NRA over background checks. It was after a meeting with parents whose children had been murdered at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut. He reports that after they left, he remained alone in his office and broke down sobbing. "Firearms are a deep part of Montana culture," he writes, "But so is some damn common sense." [p. 263]

He ends with some political advice. Democrats shouldn't be so quick to write off rural America. His career shows Democrats can win if they listen to the concerns of farmers and ranchers and others in small town America instead of ceding their votes to Republicans. And Democrats should do better with messaging. "[T]here's nothing complicated about what our party stands for: opportunity for everyone." [p.346]

In entertaining and sometimes earthy prose, Tester gives a good account of himself and provides some insights about not only his life in Washington but his life in Big Sandy, Montana as well.

-- Daniel M. Kimmel, OnTheIssues editor, July 13, 2021

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