Tim Sheehy the “Poster Boy” for Influx of Wealthy Out-of-Staters to Montana
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, September 6, 2023
CONTACT
monica@mtdems.org
Helena, MT – New reporting from The Messenger highlights the tension of wealthy out-of-staters who “began buying up real estate in some of the most picturesque areas of the state” and why Tim Sheehy – who moved to Montana less than a decade ago and bought up a private peninsula on Flathead Lake and a luxury chalet in Big Sky – is the embodiment of that change. Read more:
The Messenger: Montana Sen. Jon Tester Bets That ‘Carpetbagger’ Is a Dirtier Word Than ‘Democrat’ in Reddening State
By Dan Merica
September 6, 2023
When Tester, first elected in 2006, was seeking reelection in 2018, he turned his opponent – Republican state auditor Matt Rosendale, someone who had been elected to multiple positions in the state he had lived in for nearly two decades – into the embodiment of an outsider, harnessing the Republican’s distinct Maryland accent to successfully brand him “Maryland Matt,” playing into a longheld suspicion of newcomers in the mountain west state.
The attack contrasted Tester’s authenticity, leveraging his look – flattop haircut, sizable frame, only seven fingers because of a meat grinder incident – and the fact that he is a third-generation Montana farmer.
[The] attack that worked in 2018 may be more powerful today, with Montana experiencing skyrocketing real estate prices because of a dramatic influx of wealthy out-of-state transplants.
“People see it changing,” Nancy Keenan, who directed the Montana Democratic Party during Tester’s 2018 race, said of the state. “It isn’t necessarily as much about in-state and out-of-state as it is about Montana values and what people who are born and raised here appreciate - the wild outdoors, being able to know your neighbor, and being able to afford it.”
Of Sheehy, Keenan said, “He is exactly the poster boy of people who are coming in here, buying up property, putting on a cowboy hat and a belt buckle and not having any idea of Montana values.”
The shift has not been entirely welcome, especially because many of those newcomers brought significant out-of-state wealth with them and began buying up real estate in some of the most picturesque areas of the state.
To Democrats, Sheehy – who owns multiple homes in Montana and was a prized recruit because of his ability to self-fund a campaign against Tester – is the embodiment of this change.
“Tester doesn't have to pretend. He doesn't have to put on a costume every time he wakes up. His jeans are dirty from the farm, not because he scuffs them up in the dirt,” said Matt McKenna, a longtime Democratic operative in Montana. “But every day Tim Sheehy forgets to put on that costume, voters are going to realize that he just showed up here and started buying property.”
McKenna added: “Good for him. He has got a bunch of very nice houses. But bummer for him, he is the perfect avatar for how the outsiders are ruining the Montana way of life that the people who have been here their whole lives are used to. He is just the poster boy for it.”
A spokesperson for Sheehy did not respond to a request for comment on this story.
In 2018, the senator and his aides savaged Rosendale for moving to Montana from Maryland, using his notably East Coast accent – along with a position on public lands – to cast the conservative Republicans as not only out of touch with the state but also someone who could not actually represent Montana values.
“It’s starting to be unsustainable. So there is a lot of backlash towards very, very wealthy people who are really turning Montana into their own playground,” said Olson. “So we are at an inflection point for the state, where [Sheehy winning] would be this new reality of Montana as some type of transplant state where your roots in the state are less important than your money.”
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