Despite recent polls indicating Republican Senate candidate Tim Sheehy leading Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT), Tester insists that he’s way ahead of the former Navy SEAL officer.

“I’m kicking his a**,” the Montana Democrat told Fox News.

Tester is one of the upper chamber’s most vulnerable members, and the Cook Political Report has his seat labeled as a political toss-up. Polling conducted after the first presidential debate gave Tester more bad news, showing Sheehy leading the incumbent by 5 percentage points.

Another poll ending June 26 showed Sheehy leading by 6 percentage points. However, Tester told Fox News that internal polling by his campaign revealed he was way above Sheehy, but he refused to give real numbers. 

“My race isn’t in a precarious place,” Tester pushed.

Among members of the Democratic Party, there is fear that President Joe Biden’s candidacy will have a negative impact on those down the ballot. In Montana, Biden is polling at 36.3%. Former President Donald Trump had won the state in 2020 by 16 points.

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Tester skipped a meeting Thursday with senior Biden advisers Mike Donilon and Steve Ricchetti and Campaign Chairwoman Jen O’Malley Dillon at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. His office claimed it was a scheduling conflict and Tester met with defense company Northrop Grumman to speak about the “Sentinel project” instead. 

The senator has raised more than three times as much money as Sheehy. From January 2023 to May 15, 2024, Tester’s campaign has raised $32.8 million; whereas, from July 27, 2023, to May 15, 2024, Sheehy’s campaign has raised $10.5 million.