What Happened to Montana?

As you may have heard, Tim Sheehy, the Republican candidate for Senate in Montana, was caught on tape making grotesquely racist remarks about Native Americans.

Tim Sheehy, the Republican Senate nominee in Montana whose race could flip the balance of the Senate, was recorded last year making comments about Native Americans that perpetuated racist stereotypes, according to several reports.

Sheehy, a former Navy Seal, made remarks specifically about members of the Crow Tribe of Indians at private fundraisers in 2023. At one event, Sheehy said he had roped cattle with Crow members, calling it “a great way to bond with all the Indians while they’re drunk at 8 a.m. and you’re roping together.” At another event, while talking about participating in a parade at the Crow Fair, he said, “They’ll let you know whether they like you or not — there’s Coors Light cans flying by your head.”

His comments were first reported last week by Char-Koosta News, a local outlet that covers the Flathead Indian Reservation. The New York Times also published audio of Sheehy’s comments on Tuesday. According to recordings published by Char-Koosta News, Sheehy repeated his “Coors Light cans” line at two other events, though it’s unclear when those took place.

Sheehy’s remarks were met with anger by the Rocky Mountain Tribal Leaders Council, which represents a number of tribes and First Nations in North America. Council Chair Bryce Kirk said in a letter to Sheehy on Tuesday that the Republican “insult[ed] us with a stereotype that only seeks to severely diminish and dishonor our people,” according to The Associated Press. “The Crow people are not your punchline. Native Americans are not your punchline,” Kirk added.

Here’s the thing–this is not going to hurt Sheehy in Montana. Not at all.

And it’s sad–Montana used to be a conservative but reasonably moderate state. There’s a long history of Democrats getting elected there. Sometimes they could be annoying and even pretty bad, like Max Baucus. But going back to Mike Mansfield and continuing through Jon Tester, decent Democrats could come out of this conservative state. As Tester’s example suggests, this continued long after its neighboring states such as Idaho and South Dakota gave up similar traditions of moderation and went far right.

Now? Montana is gone full horrible and for the worst possible people. Jon Tester is now embracing Trump in his rhetoric in order to try and survive, including refusing to endorse Harris. It’s not going to work, in part because no one actually believes that this decent man who long avoided being Joe Manchin really feels this way. He’s almost certainly going to lose this election. I believe we have a better chance of defeating Rick Scott in Florida. I will have more on this later. But it’s bad in Montana. Moreover, look at the type of people they are electing. These aren’t just conservatives. They are east coast rich assholes. Oddly, Sheehy doesn’t even have a Wikipedia page yet, so I’m not entirely sure about his background, but this is a guy who routinely lies about both his military service and his company.

Meanwhile, there is Greg Gianforte, Montana governor, elected to Congress days after he beat up a reporter asking him question. Gianforte is a billionaire from New Jersey who moved to a big ranch in Montana to cosplay as a cowboy. You have Ryan Zinke in the House, the former Secretary of the Interior, who at least from Montana, even if he is the true definition of all hat, no cattle, to real Montana outdoorspeople. And then there is Montana’s other congresscritter, a rich Maryland guy who moved to a big ranch in Montana to cosplay as a cowboy who is somehow worse than all these other people, a genuinely reprehensible human. At least he’s been more or less forced out of politics by Republicans who want to keep things at least sorta respectable, but he’s going to be replaced by Troy Downing, a rich California guy who moved to a big ranch in Montana to cosplay as a cowboy.

The question is why do Montanans not only now embrace far-right politics, but far-right politics from the outsiders they claim to hate? With the Downing race, Montana Republicans even had the chance to bring back Denny Rehberg, who is awful too, but at least is from Montana. But their voters wanted someone even more crazy and Downing won the primary by 19 points.

For a state that so values its independence in rhetoric and did in fact for so long, it sure has gone real bad there. Montana is evidently headed into Idaho and West Virginia company, but in a way completely headed by people who watch Yellowstone and decide they want to be Kevin Costner.

Sad stuff.

……Incidentally, a new poll of the MT Senate race came out today and….Tester is going to lose this race barring something very unusual happening.

New MONTANA poll from FabrizioWard (R)/Binder Research (D) for the AARP:

Senate
Tester (D-inc) 45
Sheehy (R) 51

Tester 41
Sheehy 49
Daoud (L) 4
Downey (G) 1

Pres
Trump 56
Harris 41

Fav/unfav
Tester 43/52
Sheehy 48/45

600 LVs, 8/25-29, mixed modehttps://t.co/YMq9NABJ2U— Jacob Rubashkin (@JacobRubashkin) September 5, 2024