Republican U.S. Senate candidate Tim Sheehy refused to say last month if he would support the restoration of federal abortion rights.
Sheehy is running in the Republican primary for the U.S. Senate in Montana. If he wins the nomination, he’ll challenge Democratic incumbent Sen. Jon Tester in the general election.
In a video shared exclusively with the American Journal News, a voter can be seen approaching Sheehy at a public event and asking if he would vote to reinstate Roe v. Wade. Sheehy initially acknowledges the voter before turning his back to them when the question is asked. The voter repeats the question two more times but Sheehy does not respond.
Sheehy has expressed anti-abortion views in the past. In an April 2023 radio interview, he compared abortion to murder.
“It’s really frustrating how, you know, we have one party in this country that seems to be bent on murdering our unborn children and taking that, taking that tack, you know, in a very militant way,” Sheehy said.
Sheehy has been endorsed by the prominent anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America. The group has pledged to only back candidates who support a national abortion ban.
Yeah, I can understand why that’s an issue he can’t be honest about:
Abortion rights proponents in Montana have proposed a constitutional amendment that would bar the government from denying the right to abortion before viability or when it’s necessary to protect the life or health of the pregnant person. After a legal battle over the ballot language, the Montana Supreme Court in April wrote its version of the language that would appear on the ballot if supporters gather more than 60,000 signatures by June 21. Abortion is legal until viability in Montana, under a 1999 Montana Supreme Court opinion.
Friendly reminder:
There are currently two open seats on the Montana State Supreme Court that are hotly contested, but what does that power does that position hold?
The Supreme Court is meant to be a group of people that oversees legislation, ballot measures and day to day operation of this state to ensure that it's held to its constitutional code. It's the legal oversight.
There are seven members on the bench at a time and for the most part, all of the current justices are from Montana. They've attended law school, and they have pretty extensive resumes when it comes to prior experience.
However, what's especially important to note is that the current Constitution of the State of Montana, which was adopted in 1972 and off of which all of the justices base their legal interpretation, outlines the requirements for Montana Supreme Court Justices to hold office.
So will the real Tim Sheehy please stand up?
One convoluted narrative, six months out from an election, is unlikely to decide the race. But it has added a wrinkle to a larger question facing voters: Which of these candidates can I trust?
Democrats have jumped on the incident. VoteVets, a progressive group focused on veterans issues, has spent $200,000 on advertisements questioning Mr. Sheehy’s honesty, tapping Montana veterans to share their thoughts on him with other voters.
“Veterans, when they run for office, you say you’re a veteran, because automatically people know this guy has honor, he has integrity,” said Jonas Rides at the Door, a Missoula Democrat and Marine Corps veteran who works with VoteVets. “But then you can tarnish that when you start lying.”
Some supporters of Mr. Tester said the gunshot incident confirmed their suspicions about Mr. Sheehy’s character. “I think it’s bizarre,” said Henry Elsen, 68, of Whitefish. “Why couldn’t he just tell the truth?”
Republicans, and those still making up their minds about which candidate to support, said it was not an important part of their calculus.
“It’s a side distraction,” said Bob Campbell, a Republican city councilman in Missoula who said he was undecided in the Senate race.
But don’t worry, folks. Montana Democrats are already defining who the real Tim Sheehy is:
Sheehy, an ex-Navy SEAL and Minnesota native, holds up his Little Belt Cattle Co., founded in 2020 in central Montana, as a success amid profound challenges in agriculture. Democrats hope voters will instead view it as a threat in a state settled and developed through federal homesteading programs dating back to the 1800s.
More recently, Montana has seen a rush of deep-pocketed outsiders buying up land. Democrats are trying to tie Sheehy to the trend — another outsider eager to capitalize on how the popular television series “Yellowstone” has romanticized Mountain West living. Little Belt, which raises and sells cattle and beef, encompasses land once divided among three smaller ranches in prime elk-hunting country. It only allows private hunting on its grounds.
“Super wealthy folks are buying huge tracts of land and turning Montana and other Western states into a playground for the rich,” Noah Marion, political and state policy director for Wild Montana Action Fund, a group that plans to support Tester this year but in the past has also backed Republicans and independents, told NBC News.
By the way, this is just pathetic:
Former President Donald Trump mocked Sen. Jon Tester’s weight during a private event over the weekend, saying the Montana Democrat “looks pregnant to me.”
“Have you ever seen this guy? He doesn’t look like a fat guy, except that his stomach is out,” Trump said, holding his hands out in front of him during a fundraiser Saturday for Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas) at Mar-A-Lago, according to video of the event obtained by POLITICO.
Tester’s campaign did not respond to requests for comment.
Trump has a long history of disparaging his political opponents, especially women, over their looks. In the video, he immediately follows his comments by declaring that he doesn’t “talk about things like that” and never talks “about looks for a man or for a woman.”
Let’s get ready to remind voters who the real Montanan in this race is:
Health, Democracy and Freedom are on the ballot and we need to get ready to keep Tester in the Senate and protect abortion rights in Montana. Click below to donate and get involved with Tester’s re-election campaign and the Montana Democratic Party:
Jon Tester
Montana Democratic Party