Montana GOP Senate Candidate Peddles Racist Trope

In August 2023, shortly after launching his bid for the U.S. Senate, Tim Sheehy took to social media to post a picture of two horses, each with one of his campaign signs strapped to its saddle, at the annual Crow Fair.

“Proud to be at the Crow fair today!” the businessman and former Navy SEAL wrote of the annual event at the Crow Reservation in southeast Montana.

At a pair of private fundraising events a few months later, in November, Sheehy disparaged the Crow Tribe by peddling a longstanding racist trope about Native Americans and alcoholism, according to audio recordings of the events first obtained by Char-Koosta News, the official publication of the Flathead Indian Reservation, and reviewed by HuffPost.

In one recording, Sheehy, a multimillionaire businessman who has listed “cowboy” or “rancher” as his occupation in several past political contributions, talks about having helped rope and brand cattle on the Crow Reservation.

“My ranching partner and one of my really good friends, Turk Stovall, he’s a Crow Indian. We ranch together on the Crow [reservation],” Sheehy told a crowd in Shelby, Montana. “I rope and brand with them every year down there — great way to bond with all the Indians out there, while they’re drunk at 8 a.m.”

“Every heel shot you miss you get a Coors Light can upside the head,” Sheehy added.

Stovall, the ranching partner Sheey mentioned, is a fifth-generation Montana rancher, a board vice chairman of the Montana Stockgrowers Association and operates a ranch on the Crow Reservation. He is the son of the late Jay Omer Stovall, Jr., a former Montana legislator and “proud enrolled member of the Crow Tribe.” The senior Stovall’s obituary notes that he was “appointed by President George H. Bush to represent Indian and minority issues in education and in the [U.S. Department of Agriculture] and felt called to “help give Crows a voice.”

In a campaign advertisement for Sheehy last month, Stovall says he’s been working with Sheehy “to strengthen Montana agriculture and to create more opportunities for ranchers and farmers across our state.” Stovall goes on to accuse Sheehy’s opponent, incumbent Democratic Sen. Jon Tester, of leveling “disgusting” attacks against Sheehy’s character and his aerial firefighting company and ranching operation.

At a second campaign event in Hamilton, Montana, the same month, Sheehy boasted of participating in the Crow Fair a few months earlier.

“Six weeks after I launched, one of the first things I did was I strapped a Sheehy sign to a horse and rode through the Crow res parade,” he said, adding that it was a “tough crowd.”

“They let you know whether they like you or not, there’s Coors Light cans flying by your head as you’re riding by,” he added, drawing sporadic laughter. “They respect that. You go where the action is. They say, ‘Hey, that guy’s not that bad. He got on a horse and rode through the parade, that’s pretty cool. I threw a beer can at his head and he didn’t even flinch. I like that guy.’”

HuffPost reviewed two videos of the full 2023 parade on social media and was unable to find Sheehy among the participants. Not a single beer can was hurled through the air. It was just a beautiful, peaceful, powerful event.

Montana tribal leaders have roundly condemned Sheehy’s remarks.

In a letter to Sheehy on Wednesday, obtained by the Missoulian newspaper, the Montana American Indian Caucus, which consists of eight Indigenous state senators and representatives, said Sheehy’s words were “wrong, derogatory, and hurtful to a racial population that is fighting for equality and to improve their homeland.”

“As a candidate for office in Montana, you have a responsibility to know and respect the Indian communities you are running to represent,” the letter says. “You are also responsible for using your platform to advocate for that respect to your political supporters. Instead, you have chosen to disrespect the original Montanans as a strategy to pander to the non-Indian vote and political funders. Your remarks have only further alienated the tribal people from your party.”

The Rocky Mountain Tribal Leaders Council, which represents the Crow Tribe and 10 other tribes in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho, demanded a formal apology in a Tuesday letter to Sheehy’s campaign, The Associated Press reported.

“You ask for our votes and then you go to your fundraiser, ironically with alcohol flowing and laughter at our expense behind closed doors, and you insult us with a stereotype that only seeks to severely diminish and dishonor our people,” Bryce Kirk, the council’s chairman, reportedly wrote. “The Crow people are not your punchline. Native Americans are not your punchline.”

Sheehy’s campaign has largely remained silent despite his remarks receiving national media attention. The campaign did not respond to HuffPost’s multiple requests for comment.

The Crow Tribe and Stovall also did not respond.

The recordings are the latest in a campaign that has been plagued by scandal, from Sheehy admitting he lied to a national park ranger about how he received a gunshot wound to questions about the viability of what he has repeatedly described as his “successful” aerial firefighting company. As HuffPost recently reported, Sheehy has been doing damage control after previously advocating for federal public lands to be “turned over” to states — an effort that bizarrely included tapping a pro-transfer advocate for a TV ad in which he casts himself as a champion of public lands.

But in perpetuating a racist stereotype about Native Americans, one that has been debunked and has had sweeping negative impacts on Indigenous communities, Sheehy risks ostracizing a sizable portion of Montana voters.

Six percent of Montana residents are Indigenous, making it the U.S. state with the sixth-highest percentage of Native Americans. The state is home to 12 tribal nations and seven reservations.

Sheila Hogan, executive director of the Montana Democratic Party, called Sheehy’s comments “inexcusable.”

“Tim Sheehy’s comments, which play into racist and harmful stereotypes about Native Americans, show just how unfit Sheehy is to represent Montanans and how little he cares about our state,” she said in a statement Wednesday. “We condemn Sheehy’s comments in the strongest possible terms.”

In posts on X responding to news of Sheehy’s remarks, Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), chair of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, applauded Tester’s record of advocating for Montana tribes as a member of the committee.

“Jon is from Montana so he doesn’t talk about anyone like that – especially not the members of the 12 tribal nations in Montana,” Schatz wrote. “Jon fights hard for Montana Tribes and doesn’t talk about them like he just got off a private jet from California.”