NEW REPORT: Tim Sheehy Repeatedly Lied About Growing Up in “Rural” Minnesota
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Saturday, April 13, 2024
CONTACT
rehm@mtdems.org
To rural and agricultural Montana audiences, Sheehy repeatedly claimed he had a “rural” upbringing – but he actually grew up in “suburbia” 15 minutes from Minneapolis
Helena, MT – New reporting today from the Daily Beast revealed that Tim Sheehy has repeatedly lied about growing up in “rural” Minnesota on the campaign trail – when he actually grew up in a multimillion-dollar lakehouse in Shoreview, 15 minutes from Minneapolis and his elite private school in the heart of St. Paul.
The Daily Beast reported that “Sheehy has described his ‘rural’ childhood on multiple occasions—at a fundraiser for Montana rodeo, in multiple podcast and radio hits, as well as in an interview with Western Ag Reporter.” But Sheehy’s upbringing is anything but what Montanans would consider rural: His “home turf is quintessential Minnesota suburbia—a place where pavement dominates pasture.”
Read more on the latest development in Sheehy’s pattern of lies and inconsistencies:
Daily Beast: GOP Star Recruit Brags About ‘Rural’ Upbringing. He Grew Up 15 Minutes From the City.
By Riley Rogerson
April 12, 2024
As he works to connect with voters in the very rural state he has adopted as his home, Montana Senate hopeful Tim Sheehy is touting what he claims is his own countryside upbringing in Minnesota.
“I grew up in rural Minnesota,” Sheehy told the Working Ranch Radio Podcast in October 2023. “And although we were not farmers, I grew up in an old farmstead and we were surrounded by farmland.”
Since launching his campaign to unseat vulnerable Sen. Jon Tester (D) last year, Sheehy has described his “rural” childhood on multiple occasions—at a fundraiser for Montana rodeo, in multiple podcast and radio hits, as well as in an interview with Western Ag Reporter.
The truth, however, is that Sheehy’s home turf is quintessential Minnesota suburbia—a place where pavement dominates pasture.
The Republican candidate grew up in a multimillion dollar lake house in Shoreview, Minnesota, a quiet Twin Cities suburb just north of St. Paul with a population of roughly 27,000. Sheehy’s campaign confirmed to the Montana Free Press in December that he grew up in the town.
According to a 1990 deed, Sheehy’s childhood home on Turtle Lake is 13 miles from the Minnesota State Capitol, 13 miles from the home of the Minnesota Vikings at U.S. Bank Stadium, and just over 20 miles from Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport and the Mall of America.
The property sits just three miles from a Trader Joe’s market—much closer than the nearest Fleet Farm, a fishing, hunting, and farm supply store popular in the state.
And Sheehy was educated 16 miles away at St. Paul Academy, one of the Twin Cities’ most elite private high schools, which counts the writer F. Scott Fitzgerald as an alumnus.
Today, Shoreview is seen as a desirable slice of middle to upper-middle class suburbia with quiet spaces and good schools.
Niche, a popular online source for school rankings and community reviews, called Shoreview “one of the best places to live in Minnesota” and even bestowed the community with the distinction of “#1 Best Suburb to Buy a House in Minneapolis-St. Paul Area.”
According to Niche’s description, “Living in Shoreview offers residents a dense suburban feel and most residents own their homes.”
Residents describe Shoreview as the stereotypical suburb.
As he prepares to take on Tester, who lives on a farm his family operates in the rural community of Big Sandy, Sheehy is clearly looking to boost his own connection to the lifestyle and values of the state.
Shoreview may sound quaint, but perhaps not in the way Sheehy was going for in his attempts to relate to voters in Montana, where over 44 percent of the population lives in a rural area.
Sheehy’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment for this article.
But as Sheehy gears up for a race that very well may decide the balance of power in the Senate, the first-time candidate’s history has come under a microscope. And Sheehy’s misleading description of his upbringing is not the only instance in which his sterling story hasn’t matched the gritty details.
For instance, Sheehy—who has a primary residence in Bozeman—has taken up ranching[...].
But The Daily Beast reported last June that Sheehy hadn’t registered his cattle or farm animals as required by the state, skipping out on the customary taxes that Montana agriculture businesses are expected to pay.
Sheehy has also campaigned on being a “self-made” entrepreneur, but as The Daily Beast also reported in December, Sheehy conspicuously left out the extensive financial support from his family from his “bootstrapping” account of building Bridger Aerospace that he later divulged in his memoir Mudslingers.
This month, the Washington Post reported that Sheehy has been offering inconsistent accounts to voters of how he received a gunshot wound in his arm, which he has cited as evidence of his toughness on the campaign trail.
Sheehy has been dinged previously for his misrepresentation of rural settings. Last year, Business Insider reported that Sheehy had used a professional photo of him taken outside a sunny, green pasture in Kentucky on his campaign website next to a description of his “direct participation” in Montana agriculture.
In touting his bucolic upbringing, Sheehy told a local Montana radio station, “I grew up in rural Minnesota, you know, land of 10,000 lakes.”
But Sheehy’s hometown is also the land of a 90,000 square foot community center—complete with a tropical-themed indoor waterpark.
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