Sheehy supporters see candidate who will take on immigration, economy

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Tim Sheehy speaks with attendees after a Save America Rally with former congresswoman and 2020 presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard at Snowline Acres in Kalispell on Thursday, June 13. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Casey Kreider

Former congresswoman and 2020 presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard speaks during a Save American Rally with Republican U.S. Senate candidate Tim Sheehy at Snowline Acres in Kalispell on Thursday, June 13. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Casey Kreider

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Tim Sheehy passes the microphone to former congresswoman and 2020 presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard during a Save America Rally at Snowline Acres in Kalispell on Thursday, June 13. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Casey Kreider

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Tim Sheehy speaks during a Save America Rally at Snowline Acres in Kalispell on Thursday, June 13. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Casey Kreider

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Tim Sheehy speaks with Bigfork resident Frances Haden after a Save America Rally at Snowline Acres in Kalispell on Thursday, June 13. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Casey Kreider

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Tim Sheehy speaks during a Save America Rally at Snowline Acres in Kalispell on Thursday, June 13. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Casey Kreider

Attendees listen during a Save America Rally with Republican U.S. Senate candidate Tim Sheehy and former congresswoman and 2020 presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard at Snowline Acres in Kalispell on Thursday, June 13. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Casey Kreider

Rep. Courtenay Sprunger speaks during a Save America Rally with Republican U.S. Senate candidate Tim Sheehy and former congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard at Snowline Acres in Kalispell on Thursday, June 13. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Casey Kreider

Attendees applaud during a Save America Rally with Republican U.S. Senate candidate Tim Sheehy and former congresswoman and 2020 presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard at Snowline Acres in Kalispell on Thursday, June 13. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Casey Kreider

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Tim Sheehy speaks during a Save America Rally at Snowline Acres in Kalispell on Thursday, June 13. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Casey Kreider

by KATE HESTON
Daily Inter Lake | June 16, 2024 12:00 AM

Sylvia Timboe moved to Montana for its perceived conservative principles. Sending Tim Sheehy to the U.S. Senate will preserve those values, she said.

“I feel the same way a lot of Americans do ... the Biden days, their time is over. Trump’s time is now,” Timboe said Thursday morning at a Save America Rally for Tim Sheehy, the Republican businessman attempting to unseat three-term Democratic Sen. Jon Tester at the polls in November.

The rally at Snowline Acres in Kalispell drew around 200 attendees, many sporting Sheehy and former President Donald Trump apparel. Timboe arrived wearing a red Make America Great Again hat with a large “45” emblazoned on the right side.

Timboe, a former Democrat and a retired nurse, said that she valued Sheehy’s military service — he is a retired Navy SEAL — and his stance on immigration policy.

As for Sheehy’s largest perceived vulnerability, Timboe said it mattered little to her that Sheehy grew up in Minnesota and moved to Montana in 2014. What’s important is that he lives here now, she said.

“Look, we all pay taxes here, we’re all neighbors,” Timboe said.

For many in the crowd, including Timboe, the economy and immigration topped their list of priorities in the 2024 election cycle.

Sheehy, though touching upon both those issues, focused his remarks on what he saw as a nation at the precipice. America needs saving, he said, and its citizens must shake off apathy and get involved.

“America’s at a crossroads, there’s no other way to say it,” Sheehy said.

The Senate race in Montana is the most important political race outside of the presidency, he said, and the country is being undermined by the lawmakers elected to protect it. America must return to a time where cops are good, criminals are bad, boys are boys and girls are girls, he said.

Sheehy, though, opted against raising Trump’s recent conviction on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records following his May hush money trial in New York City. The former president is seeking a return to the White House as the GOP’s presumptive nominee.

“We need more conservative people in Congress,” said rally goer Don Williams, a Kalispell resident and Vietnam veteran who arrived wearing a short-sleeved, button-up shirt designed to look like the U.S. flag. “If I had a dog, I’d vote for my dog over Tester.”

Williams likes Sheehy’s stance on immigration, the economy and ending “woke-ness” in schools by ensuring parents have a say in their child's education, he said.

From his upbringing to his medical records, Sheehy has faced scrutiny for lying in recent months. While he has crafted an image of growing humbly in a rural part of Minnesota, he was a 2004 graduate of a private high school in the Twin Cities area, growing up in a multimillion-dollar lake house.

He has also told different stories about how he suffered a gunshot wound to his arm, in one account saying it occurred when his firearm went off accidentally while on a trip to Glacier National Park in 2015. When pressed on that account, Sheehy said he received the wound while serving in Afghanistan in 2012, but lied to avoid a potential military investigation.

He never reported the 2012 incident to his supervisors, according to The Washington Post.

None of that deterred Williams, who said that all politicians lie. His support for Sheehy, he said, is not going to change because of small things.

Leanna Matelli of Kalispell also pointed toward the economy and immigration as two of her priorities heading into November. After the rally, with tears in her eyes, she urged people to vote for Sheehy in November.

“I’m shocked so many of my rancher friends vote for Tester,” she said. “... It’s important for everyone to go out and vote.”

Much of Thursday’s rally was spent criticizing Tester’s voting record. Former congresswoman and presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard, who served in Hawaii as a Democrat before leaving the party, took a turn at the mic and ended up the rally’s longest speaker.

Gabbard questioned whether Tester cared about the Constitution and his stance on securing the border, which has often put Tester at odds with the Biden administration and fellow Democrats. Gabbard argued that Tester’s voting record “speaks volumes,” siding with Biden’s “Democrat elite agenda” 95% of the time.

“This is the most important election of our lives,” she said. “I’m not on the ballot. The future of our country is on the ballot.”

Sheehy, unlike Tester, is “motivated by a deep love of God, of country,” she said.

Tester’s campaign disputed the characterizations made at the rally.

“Sheehy is a multimillionaire out-of-stater flying in another out-of-stater to distract from his lies about himself and his agenda that threatens Montana’s way of life,” said Harry Child, a spokesperson for Tester’s campaign.

“Montanans know [Tester] has a long record of fighting to lower costs and has stood tough on the border since he was first elected to the Senate — bucking his own party along the way,” he added.

Republican state Rep. Braxton Mitchell, R-Columbia Falls, and GOP statehouse hopeful Cathy Mitchell were both in attendance. State Rep. Courtenay Sprunger, R-Kalispell, opened the rally for Sheehy.

“I think it starts with this backdrop here that says ‘Save America,’” Sprunger said, pointing at Sheehy’s campaign decorations. “This is not a hyperbole ... give Tester the retirement he deserves.”

She argued that the country was in a better state in 2020. Four years ago, she said, the border was secure, the military was not focused on diversity, equity and inclusion, and Americans could define what a woman was.

In 2020, the nation was also in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic, beset by nationwide protests against police brutality and roiled by riots, and the economy took the sharpest annual decline since the end of World War II.

At the end of the rally, supporters lined up to meet and take photos with Sheehy. He left listeners with a sentiment: Tell people to vote. While Trump is leading the polls in Montana by 22%, Sheehy is neck-to-neck with Tester. It is concerning, Sheehy said.

“This side isn’t even Republican. It’s the side of America,” Sheehy said.

Reporter Kate Heston can be reached at kheston@dailyinterlake.com or 758-4459.

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Tim Sheehy speaks during a Save America Rally at Snowline Acres in Kalispell on Thursday, June 13. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Casey Kreider