HELENA — One year before the 2024 U.S. Senate race in Montana, voters had already been seeing political ads on TV for more than three months. A year out from the 2026 Senate race, there hasn’t been nearly the same kind of attention on it.

Republican Sen. Steve Daines will be up for a third term in 2026. His last reelection campaign in 2020 was one of the most closely watched and expensive Senate races in the country – as were Democratic Sen. Jon Tester’s races in 2018 and 2024. But after Daines defeated then-Gov. Steve Bullock by 10 points and Tester lost reelection by seven points to Sen. Tim Sheehy, national political analysts like the Cook Political Report and Inside Elections have projected Daines’ seat as safe for Republicans next year.

(Watch the video for more on next year's U.S.

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