US Senate Candidate Tim Sheehy poses in front of the Yellowstone County News office and sign after taking the time to be interviewed on Wedneday August 14th, 2024. (Even Hood photo)
Last Thursday, August 15, United States Senate candidate Tim Sheehy came to the Yellowstone County News office for a quick interview. He discussed current polling numbers, why he entered the race, why he stands out, and his experience as a veteran and business owner.
Q- Jon Tester has won three statewide elections as a Democrat in Montana despite the state going to Trump by 16 and 20 points. Recent polling has you up by 2%. Can you speak to your level of confidence that the trajectory of the election is going your way and address how you differ from Tester’s previous Republican opponents?
A- The trendline of the election has only gone in one direction. I’m a first-time candidate; I’ve never run for anything at all, so it was to be expected that I was going to start behind, which we did by a lot. But now, obviously, we’ve been ahead consistently in every poll for six months, so there hasn’t been a poll showing us behind since March. If it was an aberration that would be one thing, but it’s been a consistent trendline, and I think what that shows is that our grassroots strategy is working. [Tester] obviously has boatloads more cash than we do, he’s outspent us, pick your month, three to one, five to one, ten to one, whatever it is, but I think structurally it’s been about four to one outspent. It’s not a mystery, you can turn on YouTube and see it’s just inundated with his ads. And we knew from the beginning that it was going to be a battle; we stepped into this fight as you do in the military business: you understand what the strengths, weaknesses throughout, what the opportunities are and we knew we were going to be outspent, so we adopted from day one a grassroots strategy, which is going all over the state, all 56 counties, rodeos, VFW halls, and whoever will let us in the door we talk to. Whether Republican, Democrat, far-right, middle-right, left-wing, independent, I don’t really care because, number one, this election concerns the whole country, it is a nationally important election, but also should I win I have to represent all Montanans, not just the ones that voted for me. I think that strategy’s worked, every single town we get to, shaking thousands of hands and talking to people directly to the face, look them in the eye, shake their hand and tell them why I’m running. So far, as you see in the numbers, that’s worked.
Q- How have you seen Tester’s voting record impact Montanans and what differences will the residents of Yellowstone County see with you in office as opposed to the last 18 years of Jon Tester?
A- Pretty clearly. Especially the last three and a half years when it’s been a 50/50 split in the Senate, he has not been able to hide the fact that he does vote with the Democrats all the time. Every time it matters, he supports the Biden-Harris agenda and the Obama agenda before that, and he obstructed Trump every step of the way. His judicial nominees, his cabinet nominees, etc. He is a loyal vote, a loyal foot soldier for the movement that has opened our borders, increased violent crime, human trafficking, and drug overdoses, and increased your energy prices. I just drove by the gas station here, $3.50 for gas. When Trump left office it was $1.50 a gallon. That’s not on accident, that happened very specifically because this administration has waged war on American energy. They’re slowly choking Colstrip out of existence every single day. They say they’re not trying to kill it, but then everyday they tighten the noose a little bit tighter. New regulations, new requirements, and every day they slowly choke it out of existence. When wondering what the difference will be, it’s pretty simple. I will fight for secure borders, I will fight for cheap gas, I will fight for safe streets and common-sense policies like we like our cops. Cops are good, criminals are bad, boys are boys, girls are girls. By the way, Jon Tester voted to let boys play girls’ sports. So when people think he’s just a nice old dirt farmer from Big Sandy who’s basically a Republican, look at what he’s voted for, look at the policies he’s advocated for, and most importantly look at the policies that his single vote in the Senate has allowed to be enacted. Look at your gas receipt, look at your grocery receipt, look at the crime statistics, and say this is not good for us.
Q- The rally in Bozeman seemed like quite a unified effort to promote your campaign. Can you speak to your relationship to President Trump and Senator Daines.
A- We’ve supported Trump since the beginning, and he’s supported us as well. As you heard me talk about at the rally, I’ve always been a supporter of the Trump policies, but until I entered into politics, I didn’t have a relationship with him. From supporting his policies to supporting him individually, for me, shifted when he ordered the strike against Qasem Soleimani, who had been the most pernicious adversary, a murderous, terrible, criminal of a man for decades, and really represented the worst of the Iranian regime that has been murdering Americans, taking us hostage and killing us by the thousands for 43 years. From the Tehran embassy to the Beirut Barracks Bombing in 1983 to Iraq and Afghanistan. Right now they’re launching rockets at our troops. [Trump] was the first president to really stand up and unequivocally punch Iran in the face and tell them if you touch Americans, we are going to hit you back. That was a very proud moment for a lot of us who served over there. It was great to have [Trump] here, honor to have him, especially in a presidential year to have him come support us. That was hugely meaningful and we’re going to make sure that we win.
Q- With today marking three years since the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan after the Biden administration’s withdrawal, can you talk about how your experience as a former SEAL has affected your campaign and how you’ve seen the current administration impact veterans?
A- Veterans are frustrated. Many of us spent years of our lives over there and some never came home. Lost legs, lost arms, you name it. To see the years of sacrifice that were frankly just washed away for no reason. We did win the Iraq War, we won the Afghan War. Whether you believe we should’ve been there or not, we answered the call. Both of those nations were stabilized, we did not have combat casualties for like a year in each war at the end. Biden, both during the Obama administration and his own, wanted to pull out of Iraq and Afghanistan so that Obama could run for reelection saying he had won the war in Iraq and for Biden so he could have a press conference on 9/11 of 2021 saying he ended the Afghan War. For purely political reasons, they collapsed our efforts in both countries and destabilized the region, all while they gave billions upon billions of dollars to Iran, the most destabilizing force in the region, and have flipped their noses at Saudi Arabia, who love them or hate them, have been a key source of stability and did the same to Israel. It’s literally lunacy when you look at the Middle East policy of the Obama and Biden administrations. They have betrayed our closest allies and sources of stability in the Middle East, they have completely forfeited all the gains we fought for in the region, and they have given billions of dollars to the Taliban and other stated adversaries that want to kill us. It’s been political arson that they have committed, a complete disaster that has cost thousands of lives and will cost thousands more lives before we clean it up. We have to put an end to it; we have to show strength and use common sense on the world stage.
Q- Jon Tester has spent a lot of cash on campaign ads attacking your business, can you touch on how Bridger Aerospace has impacted Montana?
A- I think it’s pathetic what [Tester] has done to our business. For a guy who’s been in office for 30 years, he could be running ads talking about all the good things he’s done for our state and country. Instead he’s spending tens of millions of dollars smearing my name and my business. My company fights fires, we protect our communities. The government decided many decades ago that it was better, safer, and cheaper for them to contract private companies to fight wildfires. That’s not controversial, that’s a pretty meat-and-potatoes job that we should be proud of. Just in the last few weeks we’ve lost four aerial fire-fighting pilots in America; it’s a dangerous job. [Tester] and the Democrat party and his friends in the media have waged an absolutely disgusting campaign against our staff and company, smearing our reputation and driving our stock price down, just for the purpose of making me look bad because they cannot win on the issues. I think all this character assassination is vintage Jon Tester; he did the same thing to Ronny Jackson. When Ronny was up to be a fantastic nominee to fix the VA, Jon Tester, instead, bowed to his special interest groups and used a character assassination campaign to skewer [Jackson’s] nomination. The same thing that the Democrats did to Brett Kavanaugh and all of [Trump’s] Supreme Court nominees. Instead of judging them by the merits of their career, they try to smear the character of their opponents to either make it so miserable that they quit or just destroy their reputation so that they’re not confirmed. It’s a well-known Tester tactic; it belies his image that he likes to portray that he’s an ‘aw shucks’ good old-fashioned dirt farmer. The fact is that he wages ruthless character assassination campaigns against his opponents, whether in or out of government. I think Montanans are now seeing that for what it is. They’re seeing somebody who has served our country, who has given millions to charity, who’s created hundreds of jobs, and Jon Tester’s decided to attack me and my company instead of going after my policies and debating how we can be different in serving Montana and solving our country’s problems. It’s a sad state of affairs and it’s why we’ve led in every poll for the last six months. People recognize the inherent negativity of his campaign, while I’m talking about how we’re going to save this country he’s trying to tear me down.
