Grounded: A Senator’s Lessons on Winning Back Rural America

An inspiring and eye-opening memoir showing how Democrats can reconnect
with rural and red-state voters, from Montana’s three-term democratic senator

Senator Jon Tester is a rare voice in Congress. He is the only United States senator who manages a full-time job outside of the Senate—as a farmer. But what has really come to distinguish Tester in the Senate is his commitment to accountability, his ability to stand up to Donald Trump, and his success in, time and again, winning red state voters back to the Democratic Party. 

In Grounded, Tester shares his early life, his rise in the Democratic party, his vision for helping rural America, and his strategies for reaching red state voters. Leaning deeply into lessons on the value of authenticity and hard work that he learned growing up on his family’s 1,800-acre farm near the small town of Big Sandy, Montana—the same farm he continues to work today with his wife, Sharla—Tester has made his political career a testament to crossing the divides of class and geography. The media and Democrats too often discount rural people as Trump supporters; Tester knows better. His voice is vital to the public discourse as we seek to understand the issues that are important to rural and working-class America in not just the 2020 election but also for years to come. 

A heartfelt and inspiring memoir from a courageous voice, Grounded shows us that the biggest threat to our democracy isn’t a president who has no moral compass. It’s politicians who don’t understand the value of accountability and hard work. Tester demonstrates that if American democracy is to survive, we must put our trust in the values that keep us grounded.

Jon?Tester is a third-generation farmer and a US senator representing Montana. He and his wife Sharla operate the same farm near Big Sandy, Montana, homesteaded by Tester’s maternal grand­parents more than a century ago. Elected to the US Senate in 2006, Tester serves on the Appropriations, Commerce, Indian Affairs, and Banking committees. He is also the ranking member of the Veterans’ Affairs Committee.