BOZEMAN—Ahead of Former President Donald Trump’s packed Bozeman rally Friday, Republican Senate hopeful Tim Sheehy spoke to Americans’ hated enemy—inflation. In a tight Senate race, under the aegis of a general election fraught with economic turmoil, the former Navy SEAL took aim at Americans’ eroding economic prospects, and the related U.S. border crisis.
Sheehy spoke with the Big Sky Prospector ahead of Friday’s overflow-crowd celebration at the Brick Breeden Fieldhouse. The election has become a statement on the Biden-Harris administration’s economy and a failed border policy that’s seen millions enter the country illegally.
The event was as much a Sheehy rally, as Trump is expected to carry Montana in November by the double-digit margins he carried the state in 2016 and 2020. He and Sheehy went on Friday night to cast a vision of a restored America with a closed border, deportation of illegals, limited foreign intervention, and tamed inflation.
Exclusive: Tim Sheehy on the Issues
Sheehy is a former Navy SEAL turned candidate for US Senate. He challenges three-term incumbent Democrat Jon Tester, who has preserved Democrats’ agenda in the narrowly controlled Senate. Before welcoming Donald Trump to the stage Friday in Bozeman, Sheehy shared his perspective on key issues with the Big Sky Prospector.
Sheehy has been traveling throughout the state, shaking hands with voters and hearing directly from constituents. Sheehy said the top issue he’s hearing about from Montanans is inflation.
“Inflation is number one,” Sheehy told The Big Sky Prospector. “Six months ago, it was the border. Inflation is hurting everybody — can’t afford gas and groceries, home prices,” Sheehy said.
Unprecedented government spending, money printing under the sanitized banner of quantitative easing, crippling national debt, and runaway asset prices have made a middle class life unaffordable for many Americans. The flow of illegal immigrants across the border has hurt Americans in the pocket book, too.
Beyond squeezing affordable housing options on the lower end of the economic ladder and suppressing wage growth through glutting the market with cheap labor, it is estimated immigration, legal and illegal alike, costs the taxpayer $12.5 trillion.
Sheehy is quick to point out inflation hits America’s lower and middle classes worst. “Inflation is a regressive tax: $3.50 gasoline affects everybody, but it affects low-income Montanans the most. We’ve got to stop the war on American energy, and we’ve got to get inflation under control.”
National Stakes
Sheehy said the future of the country is at stake this November, and it may hinge on the Senate judicial appointments. Sheehy emphasized his commitment to preserving democracy and expanded on the long-lasting impact of US Senate votes.
“The functioning of our constitution is at stake,” Sheehy told the Big Sky Prospector. “The democrats have made it very clear, and we have seen this from Joe Biden in the last three weeks. He wants to reform the Supreme Court.
What does ‘reform’ mean for Joe Biden? “It means he wants to turn it into a liberal rubber-stamp for whatever he wants to do; we’ve got to stop that… the Senate can stop those things,” Sheehy said. “The justice system is the only thing standing between us and permanent socialism.”
Those prospects may hinge on Tester’s record of upholding the Biden-Harris agenda in the Senate. Montana Senator Steve Daines highlighted at Friday’s Trump rally Tester’s 33 votes with VP Harris’ Senate tie-breaker.
“The Senate is the key conduit for lunacy in our justice system – there’s so much at stake… but control of the Senate has a direct impact on the functioning of our constitution,” Sheehy said.
Later Friday on stage at Brick Breeden, Sheehy slammed Tester’s record as a “rubber stamp” of support for the “lunacy” of the Biden-Harris agenda.
Montana Stakes
“Tester has put you on the backseat and enriched the special interests of DC,” Sheehy said to the crowd in Bozeman, calling for a return to common sense leadership: “What Montanans think is common sense is pretty simple. We want a secure border, safe streets, cheap gas; cops are good, criminals are bad; boys are boys, girls are girls.”
Tester’s vulnerable position is further weakened through his record on key committee seats. A top banking and defense lobby recipient, Tester has thus far been able to duck Montanans’ ire at the ballot box, while preserving Democrats’ agenda. With Sheehy outspent by a wide margin but leading Tester by four points, Sheehy may represent a threat to those interests, which Montnans will weigh come November.
