MISSOULA, Mont. Battling for his political survival, Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) spent much of Mondays Senate debate against Republican rival Tim Sheehy on offense, accusing the wealthy rancher of helping fuel the states housing crisis, posing a threat to reproductive rights and lying to voters about his plans for federal lands.

From the opening seconds of their face-off at the University of Montana, Tester treated his opponent like the real threat he poses to his campaign for a fourth term, as well as Democrats tough odds of retaining control of the Senate next year.

Criticizing Sheehys record on protecting federal lands, a huge issue in Montana, Tester warned, Watch out what people say in back rooms, folks.

What they say in back rooms, when they dont think the recorder is going or the camera is running, is usually what they think, Tester said. And Tim said we need to turn our lands over to either his rich buddies or county government. Thats not protecting public lands.

Tester knocked Sheehy repeatedly on land use, saying his opponent has made an incredible transformation on this issue. Tester cited HuffPosts reporting, which first revealed that Sheehy had called for federal lands to be turned over to states or counties; failed to disclose his post on the board of the Property and Environment Research Center, a Bozeman-based property rights and environmental research nonprofit with a history of advocating for privatizing federal lands; and appeared to doctor a recent TV ad to remove PERCs logo from the shirt he was wearing.

In defending himself, Sheehy falsely claimed that no one, including myself, in that organization has ever advocated for selling our public lands never have, never will.

In fact, in a 1999 policy paper titled How and Why to Privatize Federal Lands, PERCs then-director, Terry Anderson, and others laid out what they called a blueprint for auctioning off all public lands over 20 to 40 years. (PERC previously told HuffPost that that 1999 paper is not representative of PERCs current thinking.)

When asked about making housing more available to Montanans, Tester highlighted his legislation that would provide tax credits to new homeowners and then quickly pivoted to slamming hedge fund folks buying homes and kicking people out of the state, a veiled reference to Sheehy moving to Montana from Minnesota a decade ago. The senator has railed about the ultra-wealthy driving up costs in the state and spending millions to try to oust him from office.

But it was on the topic of abortion rights that Tester took his most direct aim at his GOP challenger, calling him out for opposing the state ballot initiative that would protect reproductive rights and criticizing his statements calling abortion terrible and murder.

Women should be able to make their own health care decisions, Tester said. It shouldnt be the federal government, a bureaucrat or a judge. Women should. Thats what Montanans like.