Washington — Republican Tim Sheehy will defeat Sen. Jon Tester in Montana’s Senate race, CBS News projects, flipping a seat from Democrats to consolidate power GOP majority in the upper room.

Sheehy, a former Navy SEAL and founder of an aerial firefighting company, won his party’s support as a candidate to take on Tester. The 38-year-old sought to draw a contrast with Tester, portraying himself as an outsider during the campaign while portraying the Democrat as an establishment candidate with deep ties to Washington. He also touted that his company would bring jobs to Montana, making him wealthy enough to help finance his campaign.

Sheehy, who grew up in Minnesota, has been criticized for lacking the deep roots that Tester has in the state. He was also asked about discrepancies in his account of how he suffered a gunshot wound. Meanwhile, Tester sought to portray his opponent as an outrageous carpetbagger, likening the Republican candidate to wealthy out-of-towners who have flocked to Montana in recent years.

Tester is a third-generation Montana farmer. His family was first elected to the Senate in 2006 and is well known in the state, and despite more conservative politics, he had previously been re-elected twice as a moderate Democrat.

But Montana’s political landscape has changed. In 2020, Donald Trump won Montana by more than 16 points, and trends indicate that the state’s influx of new residents is largely made up of Republicans. The state’s changing dynamics posed a serious hurdle for Tester — the only Democrat to hold a statewide office in Montana.

Montana’s Senate seat was a prime target for Republicans, providing one of the last Democratic holdouts in the Great Plains, and red states more broadly.

Entering Election Day with a narrow 51-49 majority in the Senate, Democrats had little room for error after Senator Joe Manchin opted not to seek re-election, which all but resulted in a reversal of his seat by the Republican Party in West Virginia guaranteed. And along with a swing in Ohio, Republicans saw Tester’s seat as the next best chance to gain ground.