- Pritzker Fellows
- Current Fellows
- Jon Tester
Jon Tester
Former U.S. Senator (D-MT)
Biography
After earning a degree in music from the College of Great Falls in 1978, Jon took over the Tester farm. He also taught music at F.E. Miley Elementary and was also elected to the Big Sandy School Board. He was first elected to the Montana Senate in 1998. In 2005, his colleagues chose him to serve as Montana Senate President. In 2006, he was first elected to the United States Senate and served until January, 2025. He is an outspoken voice for rural America and an advocate for small businesses who has hosted numerous Small Business Opportunity Workshops across Montana to serve thousands of business owners and entrepreneurs. He’s a champion of responsible energy development, sportsmen’s issues, clean air and water, Indian nations, women’s access to care, and quality health care for all of America’s Veterans. In the Senate, he served on the Veterans’ Affairs, Homeland Security, Indian Affairs, Banking and Appropriations Committees.
Seminars
“A Rural American’s View: From Big Sandy to the Senate”
Rural America shares many of the same problems as urban areas – shortages of accessible health care, high food and housing prices, a dying local news business and a loneliness epidemic – but many of the approaches of politicians and lawmakers are divorced from the differences.
Former Senator Jon Tester, Democrat of Montana, is one of the only United States senators to hold a full-time job while serving in the Senate – working his family’s 2,400-acre farm near Big Sandy – and routinely outran other Democrats in red states until his loss in 2024. Come hear from one of the most authentic lawmakers in the country discussing his views as both an active farm worker and a member of the most elite body in the United States on everything from our food systems to the threat of China to the elements of his loss that are instructive to understanding contemporary American politics and culture.
Fellows seminars are off the record and open to current UChicago students only.
How did I go from farmland to the United States Senate, and how did the world change after I landed in Washington in 2007? How did my election strategies, legislative priorities and understanding of the threats – and benefits – to our nation shift, as well as my position within my party? Why, almost 20 years later, did I still feel like a misfit in those halls, friends with more staff than fellow senators? After an introduction to me, let’s talk about what you think each party actually stands for these days.
I am a third-generation farmer, and the challenges of my grandparents are different from mine. One of the most interesting “horseshoe” political trends to emerge this year is contempt for big agriculture. So in what ways is the central messenger of this rancor, RFK Jr, correct in his criticisms, and what does he get wrong? Let’s talk, the Stockyards Act, costs, what “high processed” really means and the impacts of fertilizer, chemicals, and GMOs on our food.
Special Guest (via Zoom): Walter Schweitzer, President of the Montana Farmers Union Board
Women’s choice and Me. We will explore how I became divided against myself. Jon Ellingson, who was the Democratic floor leader from the 2005 state senate session, made me evolve my views.
Special Guest (via Zoom): Jon Ellingson, former Montana State Senator & Vice Chair of Big Sky 55+
What is the Farm Bill, why do we have it and what are its impacts? How does the Farm Bill actually work, and what is in it (hint: money for urban dwellers hundreds of miles from farms)? What federal programs help farmers, and which programs should be rethought? Test your knowledge of where your food comes from and how Washington plays a crucial role.
Special Guest (via Zoom): Bob Quinn, Farmer, Writer & Entrepreneur
My 2024 loss can be attributed to many things, and among them is the total erosion of local journalism and the
consolidation of news under Sinclair Inc. I will walk you through a key incident of the campaign – when my opponent lied about a shooting injury – and how that played out in the new media ecosystem. A loss of local journalism did not just impact my campaign, it also eroded trust and accountability in every facet of government.
Special Guest (via Zoom): Maritsa Georgiou, Political Journalist & Newscaster
Let’s take a deep look at rural health care - from veteran care and primary care capacity to mental health services and care on native lands - and explore why it is broken and ideas, including your own, on how we can best repair it. My committee chairmanship of the Veteran Affairs Committee to work on my appropriations and Indian affairs, as well as the lives of my neighbors, have informed my take. How are healthcare challenges the same or different in rural and urban areas in terms of cost, access and resources?
Special Guest (via Zoom): Cindy Stergar, CEO of the Montana Primary Care Association
Members of Congress know a lot more about the threat of China to our national security than most of the American public ever hears. Can China replace us economically via money manipulation, trade and the Belt and Road initiative? Can they replace us militarily through their military infrastructure and in the China sea? Can they replace our information systems such as TikTok?
Let’s break out into groups and talk about solutions to our broken campaign finance system, which underlies many - if not most - of the problems we have unpacked this year. To wit: my Senate race cost $27 million in 2006 and $270 million in 2024.