Summary
Tim Sheehy is a father, husband, combat veteran, a patriot, and an entrepreneur. He completed several deployments and hundreds of missions as a Navy SEAL Officer and Team Leader, deploying to Iraq, Afghanistan, South America, and the Pacific region. Sheehy was involved in dozens of engagements with enemy forces, earning him multiple combat decorations, including the Bronze Star with Valor for Heroism in Combat and the Purple Heart Medal.
Party: Republican Party
Spouse: Carmen Sheehy
Children: 4
Education: Naval Academy
Business: Founder Bridger Aerospace
OnAir Post: Tim Sheehy
News
Republican Tim Sheehy won his party’s nomination to run for Montana’s U.S. Senate seat on Tuesday, according to a race call by The Associated Press.
Sheehy, a former Navy Seal and entrepreneur, is a political newcomer taking on incumbent Democratic Sen. Jon Tester in November. He addressed his lack of legislative experience head on at a dinner with Montana Republicans earlier this year.
“I’ve been criticized by a lot of people, some in this room [who ask], ‘who the hell is this guy? He’s never been in office before. What does he think he’s doing running for Senate?’ ” he said.
About
Overview
Tim Sheehy is a father, husband, combat veteran, a patriot, and an entrepreneur. He completed several deployments and hundreds of missions as a Navy SEAL Officer and Team Leader, deploying to Iraq, Afghanistan, South America, and the Pacific region. Sheehy was involved in dozens of engagements with enemy forces, earning him multiple combat decorations, including the Bronze Star with Valor for Heroism in Combat and the Purple Heart Medal.
A graduate of the Naval Academy class of 2008, he was the first Midshipman to participate in the U.S. Army Special Operations exchange program and the first to graduate from the elite U.S. Army Ranger School. Immediately after graduation, Sheehy was commissioned into the U.S. Navy and completed SEAL training.
Sheehy met his wife, Carmen, who served as a US Marine Corps Officer, at the US Naval Academy. After being wounded in combat, Tim and Carmen left the military and chose to make Montana home to raise their family. They teach their four children to ranch on their 20,000-acre cattle ranch, where they raise, feed, and process cattle to help develop America’s food supply chain.
In late 2014, Sheehy founded Bridger Aerospace in his barn with all his savings and an all-veteran team. He led the growth of Bridger Aerospace and its sister company, Ascent Vision Technologies, and eventually took Bridger Aerospace public on the NASDAQ in 2023. Today, Bridger Aerospace is a major Montana employer having created over 200 Montana jobs and is one of only a few publicly traded companies in Montana. In addition to founding Bridger, Sheehy is an active firefighting pilot and has completed hundreds of firefighting missions across the American west, protecting our communities from devastation as a pilot of the CL415EAF Water Bomber.
Sheehy has created hundreds of Montana jobs and over one billion in enterprise value in the rural Montana economy. He has a proven understanding of job creation, enterprise growth, and the importance of a business-friendly environment. His companies have drawn heavily on Montana’s veteran community and our land grant universities to grow high paying jobs in our state.
Tim and his wife, Carmen, also believe strongly in giving back to the community that helped them succeed by supporting many Montana charities. The most important projects that they support include improving rural healthcare by providing the funding to bring specialty trauma and pediatric health care services to our area for the first time and building a library and playground for underserved communities. In total, the Sheehy’s have donated over six million to charities across the state.
Tim is a problem solver by nature. When he sees a problem, he works tirelessly to find a common-sense solution and will break down walls and move mountains to make it happen. From war to business, Tim has shown time and again he gets it done. Tim is again being called to serve his nation in the U.S. Senate and is running in the 2024 U.S. Senate race against career politician Jon Tester, who is seeking a fourth term as Senator.
Tim is a strong conservative who believes America’s best days are ahead. He trusts in the enormous capacity of America’s innovation engine to produce, strengthen, and create value. Tim will serve his country with honor, dedication and humility, and he will help lead us to a bright and prosperous American future. His promise is to fight for every hardworking Montanan and their family, because we all need to work together to build a future where we restore American greatness with a strong economy, low-inflation, and high-paying jobs for all Montanans.
Source: Campaign page
Web Links
Issues
On the Issues
Supporting Montana Agriculture
I stand in full support of Montana farmers and ranchers and know firsthand the challenges we face with the over consolidation of corporate agriculture, as well as the introduction of foreign entities into the American food system. Along with a fellow Navy SEAL, we founded Little Belt Cattle Company, to keep high quality Montana beef in Montana. We forged a vertically integrated beef supply chain where we raise, finish, and process premium beef 100% in Montana. I believe in fair prices for our hard-working producers and a secure food supply for our nation—and have shown this in my direct participation and investment in production agriculture here in Montana.
My wife Carmen and I feel very fortunate to be able to expose our four children to the tradition of cattle ranching in Montana on our working cattle ranch. I will be a dedicated advocate for all of us in the agriculture community, of which our family is very proud to be part.
Veterans
As a veteran and founder of Bridger Aerospace, I have made a commitment to hire hundreds of Montana veterans and put their skill set and experience to work in our mission to fight wildfires and protect our public lands and our communities.
I’m tired of seeing career politicians play politics with our veterans. Montana veterans were promised health care, but many are still struggling to access the care they need in a timely manner. Between having to drive long distances to access care to lost records at the VA, our veterans deserve so much better.
The federal government must stop overlooking our veteran community. Montana veterans will have no bigger advocate for them than by electing a fellow veteran to fight for them and fulfill the promise our nation made to them.
Social Security and Medicare
We must keep our commitment to every Montana senior to protect their Social Security and Medicare benefits. Our nation made a promise to our seniors, and I will fight each and every day to honor that promise and preserve the benefits they’ve earned.
National Security
I will never forget how I felt on 9/11. That day motivated me to serve our nation in combat. Watching Joe Biden squander the sacrifices we made with the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan, I knew it was time to serve our country once again. The politicians in Washington are more concerned with their political careers than securing America’s future. They’ve empowered our adversaries like China, opened our borders, shut down American energy production, and created economic uncertainty. We need to fund our military and stand strong against China, secure our southern border, and once again, make America energy dominant and independent.
Life
As the father of four children, I am proudly Pro-Life. My wife, Carmen, and I couldn’t imagine life without our children. I believe the most precious gift from God is life and that we have a responsibility to protect and defend the most vulnerable in our society from our children to our seniors. We have also helped bring the upgraded neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) to the Gallatin Valley, showing our commitment to providing critical care to at-risk infants.
I stand in strong support of IVF as a path for Montana families to grow and thrive when they struggle to conceive naturally, like my brother and sister-in-law who battled infertility for three years, and eventually were blessed with my nephew through IVF. I will fight against any effort to restrict IVF treatments for women and families.
It’s unfortunate that what gets lost in this debate is that Jon Tester supports elective abortion on demand up until the moment of birth. Think about that again: Jon Tester supports aborting a healthy, full-term baby the day before it’s due. That is the extreme position here.
Health Care
Our health care system is broken. Because of Obamacare, Montanans face higher premiums year after year. We’ve lost access to doctors and health care plans we were told we could keep. More government control of our health care has only made things worse. Like most Montanans, I believe we need to promote greater transparency, competition, and shopping for services in our health care system. We should be rewarding outcomes and innovation, improving access to care in our rural communities, and most importantly, protecting Montanans with pre-existing conditions.
Gun Rights
I will fight back against any attempt by liberal politicians like Joe Biden and Jon Tester from pursuing a radical gun control agenda that threatens our Second Amendment rights. Our right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. As a Navy SEAL who fought for our country and to protect our freedoms, this is a fundamental constitutional right that must and will always be protected under my watch.
Forest Management
After our military service, my wife Carmen and I started a Montana business and built one of the largest aerial firefighting companies in America, creating 200 Montana jobs. I have a unique perspective on what the federal government is failing to address when it comes to tackling wildfires—they need to let Montana start managing our federal lands.
We also need to stand strong against the radical environmentalists who are suing and shutting down timber projects with frivolous litigation. If we can responsibly manage our forests, we can harvest timber, create high-paying jobs, and reduce the threat of wildfires.
Fiscal Responsibility
We have a $32 trillion debt. $32 trillion. The spending in Washington is out of control, and the career politicians are doing absolutely nothing to rein in this out-of-control spending. We must balance the budget and begin to lower our national debt.
As a business owner and father of four, I know what it’s like to balance a checkbook – but D.C. continues to spend like drunken sailors, and now we’re all paying the cost.
I’m committed to ensuring that politicians who fail to pass a balanced budget don’t get paid because our country’s economic security should never be jeopardized for the sake of politics. You are not allowed to run your business that way, and they shouldn’t be allowed to run our nation that way.
Education
Parents must be at the forefront of their child’s education, and it’s important that we have more choice in our education system so parents and kids can find the best solution that fits their unique individual learning needs.
We also need to get politics out of the classroom and end the woke social agenda infecting our schools. Let’s teach kids how to think – not what to think. Let’s focus on the fundamentals of reading, writing, and arithmetic. And above all, we need leaders in Washington to stop things like drag queen story time from replacing the Lord’s Prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance in our classrooms.
Economy & Energy
President Biden and Jon Tester’s reckless policies have given us record high inflation, rising grocery prices, and higher energy costs. I will work to end the out-of-control spending and the disastrous economic policies that are crushing Montana families and small businesses.
We must repeal the new EPA job-killing energy regulations and mandates that the Democrats put on our economy that are driving up costs and preventing us from being energy independent – this serves only to embolden our adversaries and makes energy costs soar for hardworking Montanans. We must also take a strong stand against the disastrous socialist Green New Deal that would destroy Montana’s economy and jobs and devastate our communities.
It’s time to make America energy independent and dominant once again. We can power America’s resurgence with the greatest form of energy known to man, our God given natural resources. We are blessed here with abundant coal, minerals, timber and grasslands – let’s make sure Montana producers come first. We should be able to responsibly develop those resources here at home to create more high-paying jobs, lower energy costs, and support our communities, all while protecting the environment. This isn’t an either/or choice like the left would have you believe. We can do both.
Border Security
As a Navy SEAL, I’ve served overseas and seen firsthand what happens when you have a porous border. What’s happening at the southern border is an absolute crisis, and it gets worse each day under the Biden administration and with career politicians like Jon Tester who talk a tough game about border security but aren’t getting the job done. The result of an open southern border is more crime and drugs flooding into our country and into our Montana communities. We need to take a strong stand and secure our border, finish the wall, and finally put an end to illegal immigration once and for all.
