Rosendale Running for Senate in Montana? Here’s What He Said

Is he running or not? A lot of folks are wondering if Congressman Matt Rosendale (R-MT02) is going to run for the US Senate and try to take on liberal Senator Jon Tester (D-MT) again.

Here's what he told me on Tuesday ahead of the vote for Speaker of the House:

Aaron Flint: "Tom Lutey (Billings Gazette) reported on- a previous caller mentioned Tim Sheehy- it showed that you raised $337,000 in the last quarter, Sheehy raised about $2 million. Meanwhile, liberal Senator Jon Tester has $5 million in the bank. So I guess tell us- are you fully planning a run for the United States Senate? Or are you going to stay in the fight in the House?"

Rep. Rosendale: "We'll see. It would be very easy for me to stay in the House. There's no doubt about that. I mean, I won the last race by 35 points, and never ran a television commercial. But I'm not here to do the safe work, I'm up here to do God's work. And if the good Lord wants to send me to the United States Senate then that's where I'll land. We're going to- we've got plenty of time to worry about that."

I also asked Congressman Rosendale why he hasn't endorsed President Donald Trump, especially after Trump helped Rosendale in the 2018 election when Rosendale lost to Tester.

Rep. Rosendale: "Me and President Trump are- we are in communications, and what I say is that I want to make sure that I don't do anything- I didn't endorse Jim Jordan early ahead of this race- I don't want to do anything that's going to negatively impact anybody else's race. And quite frankly, while there's a lot of people across the state of Montana that continue to cheer for me, it's not always in everybody's best interest to have Matt Rosendale tagline on there, unfortunately."

Aaron Flint: "So you think your endorsement would hurt Trump then?"

Rep. Rosendale: "I don't know. I can't gauge what my endorsement would help or hurt anyone. And I can tell you this, I think President Trump is going to do fine whether he has Matt Rosendale's endorsement or not."

*Update: As National Review is reporting, after this story was published Wednesday morning- Congressman Rosendale sent out a post on X (Twitter) where he appears to endorse Trump's candidacy. (Tim Sheehy endorsed Trump months ago)

Navy SEAL veteran Tim Sheehy has already announced a run for the US Senate, and is endorsed by Senator Steve Daines (R-MT), Governor Greg Gianforte (R-MT), Congressman Ryan Zinke (R-MT), and others. Jeremy Mygland is also in the race. And, I just got word that former Secretary of State Brad Johnson is also entering the race.