“Self-Imposed Mess”: Tim Sheehy Continues to Face Barrage of Bad Press for Insulting Montana Women

Sheehy

Oct 9

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, October 9, 2024

CONTACT
rehm@mtdems.org

Helena, MT – Tim Sheehy’s week has gone from bad to worse as he continues to face a barrage of bad press after he was caught on tape calling women under the age of 30 “indoctrinated” for wanting to protect their reproductive freedoms.

News outlets are saying that Sheehy “managed to top himself” with his latest offensive remarks, and that this is “probably the sort of story the GOP candidate would prefer to avoid four weeks before Election Day.”

Read the latest negative headlines for yourself:

MSNBC: In key Senate race, Montana’s Sheehy faces overlapping messes
October 8, 2024
By Steve Benen

Candidate quality, however, still matters in competitive races — and in Big Sky Country, the Republican candidate keeps running into trouble.
NBC News reported: “Montana Senate candidate Tim Sheehy, who is locked in a highly consequential race with Democratic incumbent Jon Tester, said in newly unearthed audio that the Republican Party needs to do a better job at winning over young women, who he said have been ‘indoctrinated’ for years on the issue of abortion.”
Tester’s spokesperson responded to Sheehy’s rhetoric, saying, “Tim Sheehy calling young women ‘indoctrinated’ because they value reproductive freedom just goes to show how out of touch he is with Montanans. In Montana, we don’t want the government telling us what to do — and Sheehy’s position that politicians should get the final say over our health care is one of the many ways he’s trying to change Montana for the worse.”
This is probably the sort of story the GOP candidate would prefer to avoid four weeks before Election Day, but complicating matters for Sheehy is that this is the latest in a series of overlapping messes.

The Hill: Montana GOP Senate candidate says young women are ‘single-issue voters’ on abortion
October 8, 2024
By Jared Gans

Montana GOP Senate nominee Tim Sheehy said young women are “single-issue voters” on abortion and young voters are “indoctrinated” to support liberal causes, according to audio of the candidate speaking at campaign events last year.
Tester slammed Sheehy’s comments in a statement on the social platform X, saying the Republican was criticizing young women for “caring about their freedom to make their own decisions.”
“Tim Sheehy believes Montana women can’t think for themselves. I think that’s total bull. Women know their health and their bodies better than any out-of-state millionaire,” he wrote.

Jezebel: GOP Senate Candidate Thinks Young, ‘Pro-Choice’ Women Are Stupid
October 8, 2024
By Kylie Cheung

Sheehy, an unrepentant anti-abortion extremist, has a record of putting his foot in his mouth. In July, he compared himself to a falsely accused rapist (???) after Tester criticized him for his lack of qualifications, and, at the Montana Senate debate last week, he said we need abortion bans in order to protect the next, unborn Albert Einstein (I repeat: ???). Yet, in newly unearthed audio from a campaign event in 2023, Sheehy still managed to top himself.
In the audio, first reported by the Daily Montanan and independently reviewed by Jezebel, Sheehy disparages young women voters—specifically, those ages 19 to 30—for caring about abortion rights.
Pollsters predict women voters will play a pivotal role this election cycle, which is the first presidential election since the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health ruling in 2022. So, insinuating that they’re “crazy” or stupid for caring about the No. 1 issue of the election probably isn’t the best strategy.
And it’s certainly not a great strategy in a state like Montana, which, like Florida, is voting on an abortion rights ballot measure (Constitutional Initiative 28) in November.

19th News: GOP Senate candidates say women are ‘indoctrinated’ and ‘crazy’ on issue of abortion
October 8, 2024
By Amanda Becker

Sheehy, who is challenging Democratic incumbent Sen. Jon Tester in Montana, told a group in late 2023 that younger women have been “indoctrinated” on the issue of abortion and are “single-issue voters,” according to a recording of the event first shared late last month by Char-Koosta News, a news publication of the Flathead Indian Reservation.
Sheehy then repeated a lie that Democrats want to implement policies that allow abortion “up to and including the moment of birth” and permit doctors to “murder” babies after they are born.

Daily Kos: Unearthed audio reveals GOP Senate candidate's skin-crawling take on women
October 8, 2024
By Oliver Willis

Tim Sheehy, the Republican Party’s Senate nominee in Montana, was caught on a recently surfaced audio recording arguing that women have been “indoctrinated” to have pro-abortion-rights views.

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