Montana Democratic Party Executive Director Sheila Hogan: “Sheehy’s tortured relationship with the truth became clear as soon as he started talking.”

Helena, MT – In a new op-ed, Montana Democratic Party Executive Director Sheila Hogan outlined Tim Sheehy’s deeply alarming pattern of lying to Montanans about who he is. 

From lying about his “rural” upbringing to his life as a so-called “cowboy,”Sheehy seems allergic to the truth. 

Read more about Sheehy’s pattern of lying below.

Billings Gazette: The only thing we know for sure about Tim Sheehy is he’s lying to Montanans.
May 11, 2024
Sheila Hogan, Montana Democratic Party Executive Director

• Nearly one year ago, U.S. Senate candidate Tim Sheehy, a newcomer to the state, was a name unknown to Montanans. Since then, Sheehy has spent his time telling us what he wants us to believe – spinning tales of his “rural” upbringing, how he “bootstrapped” his company, and his life as a “cowboy."

• All of these are lies. 

• Sheehy’s tortured relationship with the truth became clear as soon as he started talking. On the campaign trail, he told farmers and ranchers he grew up in “rural” Minnesota. He actually grew up in a multimillion-dollar lake house 15 minutes from Minneapolis and near his elite private school in St. Paul.

• Sheehy told us he “bootstrapped” his company “from scratch.” For most Montanans, that means building your business from the ground up, on your own. Sheehy must have a different interpretation, because he forgot to mention the half a million dollars he took from family members to create his company. 

• Now that business – which runs on our taxpayer dollars – is reporting $77 million in losses.

• Sheehy called himself a “cowboy” because he bought ranch land in 2020. But reporting revealed that he does not run the day-to-day operations of the ranch, instead using it for brand deals,magazine photo shoots, and luxury ranch vacation packages for rich tourists. How many Montanans do you know call themselves a rancher if they don’t work the ranch themselves?

• Sheehy’s false claims show no sign of stopping. 

• Sheehy told Montanans that he still has a bullet in his arm from his service in Afghanistan. But records from 2015 revealed that Sheehy accidentally shot himself in the arm in Glacier National Park. 

• These records disclosed that a park ranger was dispatched to the Logan Pass parking lot after a park visitor reported a gunshot, then met Sheehy at the hospital where Sheehy explained the gun fired when it fell out of his vehicle. 

• After the 2015 incident was revealed, Sheehy claimed he lied to the park ranger about being shot in Glacier National Park to cover up a friendly fire incident he says happened in Afghanistan, and resulted in a bullet in his arm.

• But he’s refused to provide the only documents that would prove what really happened: his hospital medical records from that day in 2015.

• For nearly a year, Sheehy has spun false tales in an effort to win over Montanans. Now we see him for who he really is: a lying politician we can’t trust. Over the next six months, Montanans will learn what else Sheehy is lying about.