# Tim Sheehy **Tim Sheehy** (b. Nov 18, 1985, Ramsey, Minnesota) is the Republican junior senator from Montana. He was elected in 2024 over three-term Democrat Jon Tester, **52.6% to 45.5%**, and sworn in on Jan 3, 2025. He sits on the Armed Services, Commerce and Veterans' Affairs committees. He is the vault's example of the **businessman-veteran candidate built by national money**, and of what happens when a reporter asks where that money came from. ## Background Sheehy was a **Navy SEAL** from 2008 to 2019. In 2014 he founded **Bridger Aerospace**, an aerial-firefighting company in Belgrade, Montana. [[Steve Daines]], then chair of the Senate Republicans' campaign committee, recruited him for 2024 on that résumé. The campaign carried baggage, reported at the time by the *Washington Post* and others: - **The bullet wound.** In 2015 he told a Glacier National Park ranger that a gun had fallen and discharged. He later told the *Post* he "made up the story" about the gun going off. - **The stock sales.** Former Bridger employees sued over stock sales made before a $350 million deal. ## The influencer campaign (2026) In March 2026, New York Times reporter Mike Baker was preparing a story on the billionaires funding Sheehy. Before it ran, Sheehy posted an attack on Baker and the story on X. A wave of pro-Trump accounts amplified the post. The *Times* reported on **May 16, 2026** that some of those influencers acknowledged they had been **hired** to criticize the reporter. One of them, [[Jessica Reed Kraus]], was the only one to label her post as paid, and she was told to delete the label. That detail comes from the *Times* account. The Brennan Center's May 2026 money-in-politics roundup summarizes the *Times* finding, but it is not an independent second source. A Sheehy spokesman denied that the senator or his campaign paid for the posts. That leaves open which intermediary did: a marketing firm, a PAC or a nonprofit. That gap is the subject of [[Paid Political Influencers]]. His donors include tech-right figures. [[Luke Nosek]], for example, gave $5,000 to the Sheehy Victory Committee in February 2026. ## Role in 2026 Sheehy is not on the 2026 ballot. When senior senator [[Steve Daines]] withdrew minutes before the **March 4, 2026** filing deadline, Sheehy was among the Trump–Daines–Gianforte endorsement wall that cleared the field for [[Kurt Alme]]. Daines' statement named Sheehy as Montana's new Republican leader. Alme won the June 2 primary with 76%. According to the vault's [[MT-Sen-2026]] race file, a Sheehy-aligned PAC also ran ads in the Democratic primary. With Daines leaving, Sheehy becomes Montana's senior senator in January 2027. ## See Also - [[MT-Sen-2026]] · [[Kurt Alme]] · [[Steve Daines]] - [[Jessica Reed Kraus]] · [[Paid Political Influencers]] · [[Dark Money]] · [[Luke Nosek]]