Exclusive — Montana Republican Tim Sheehy: Trump’s Endorsement Is ‘Great Honor,’ Need Unity Behind Trump-Backed Senate Candidates

Montana Republican Tim Sheehy joined Sirius XM’s Breitbart News Saturday for his first interview since receiving former President Donald Trump’s highly influential endorsement in Montana’s race for the U.S. Senate and said it is “a great honor” to have the backing of the 45th president.

“Well, first of all, of course, it’s a great honor to have President Trump’s endorsement,” Sheehy, a former Navy SEAL, said. “We’ve been supportive of him since even before the campaign started. We’ve been very vocal about our support of the America First policies and agenda, which he skillfully enacted during his time in the White House.”

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Notably, Sheehy defended Trump and detailed his support of his candidacy in an interview with Montana Talks in April 2023, shortly after Trump was indicted for the first time in 2023 by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.

Conversely, his opponent in the Republican primary, Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-MT) — who announced his candidacy hours before Trump endorsed Sheehy Friday — dragged his feet on supporting Trump for months before endorsing him in a tweet in December. This was only after the 45th president had established his towering lead in the polls, and it was evident his four indictments had only galvanized GOP support around him.

Matt Rosendale (William Campbell/Getty Images)

Sheehy called for party unity behind Trump — lamenting over “wasted resources” in the presidential primary, which was “always a race for second place” — and for Trump-backed Senate candidates around the country.

“Listen, we’ve had a long, now, presidential primary. I think we all understood it was always a race for second place. I think we wasted a lot of money and resources when everyone knew from the beginning President Trump was going to win this and be our leader at the top of the ticket in ’24,” Sheehy said. “Having his support now, officially, is, of course, extremely helpful, and hopefully, what it’ll help do is unite our party early around candidates who can win this fall because, as we all know, the last few years, we haven’t had as many wins across the board as we needed. And what Republicans need in 2024 is major enduring majorities in both houses; we have to win the White House. That’s the only way we’re going to make enduring conservative progress and make America great again. So we have to get behind candidates who can win — that’s what Donald Trump did with me — and we’ve got to win this fall, win big, so we can save this country.”

Donad Trump (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Sheehy is the latest GOP Senate candidate in a crucial swing state to receive Trump’s endorsement — joining the likes of Gov. Jim Justice (R-WV), Ohio Senate candidate Bernie Moreno, and Arizona Senate candidate Kari Lake. These states mark four of the best pick-up opportunities for Republicans in their quest for a Senate majority. Currently, Democrats have a one-seat advantage in the Senate at 51-49.

With prospects high for Republicans behind leading candidate Justice in his Senate bid in West Virginia — a race that the Cook Political Report has already marked “Solid R” — Breitbart News Saturday host and Breitbart News Washington Bureau Chief Matthew Boyle emphasized, “It really comes down to the state of Montana,” where Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) is seeking reelection.

Jon Tester (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

“You’re 100 percent right, Matt, and obviously, West Virginia, as you said, looks like we’re on a good trajectory there. After that, we got Montana, statistically, as our next best pick-up spot, which is why I’m in the race,” Sheehy said. “Listen, I mean, being a senator was never — in my life story — wasn’t something I necessarily wanted to do, as a Navy SEAL, proud to serve our country on the battlefield. My wife was a Marine; [I] started my small businesses [and] created hundreds of jobs; I love my companies. To be honest, I’d much rather be running those, but seeing where our country is going and what’s at stake this cycle is why I’m here. It’s why I’m working so hard to make sure that we flip this seat and flip the U.S. Senate. As you said, Montana is the seat right now. That’s the keystone.”

However, Sheehy envisions a larger majority than one seat. As Breitbart News detailed, the map for a senate majority is much more favorable to Republicans in 2024 than Democrats, with only two Republican seats serving as even long-shot pick-up opportunities for the left versus ten realistic pick-up opportunities for the right, with the addition of former Gov. Larry Hogan (R-MD) to the Senate field in Maryland on Friday.

Larry Hogan (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

“It’s important to remember there are others, too,” Sheehy said. “And what we’re seeing this cycle – Larry Hogan just announced yesterday in Maryland, that’s taking a blue seat [and] putting that in battleground territory. Ohio, of course, is right there; Nevada; Arizona, with Kari Lake now getting in. We’ve got some fantastic candidates that we can ride together to victory and have a very strong national ticket from coast to coast, and hopefully, again, deliver an enduring decisive majority because that’s what it’s going to take,” Sheehy said. “We can’t keep trying to play one, two, three, four-seat majorities with parliamentary tricks to get done what we have to get done. As we’ve seen in the last year in the House, it’s been a mess. What we’ve got to do is lock down major majorities so we can make sure… the Trump tax cuts stay in place; make sure that we lock down that southern border for good, not for two or three years through executive action but for good, make sure that we’re passing economic policies that continue to encourage pro-business growth, pro-American energy so we stay energy dominant on the world stage; and, of course, obviously, our foreign policies the past three years have been a disaster.”

“The Senate is supposed to have a key part of our foreign policy crafting. In our Constitution, the Senate is supposed to be a part of the drafting of foreign treaties and, of course, the ratification of those treaties — that has been completely usurped by the executive branch,”  Sheehy continued. “So the Senate is a very important body for this nation. This is our opportunity to flip it to conservative control, and it could change America for a generation. Republicans or conservatives have to realize that in ’26 and ’28, statistically, we are on the defensive in the Senate. We will have no pick-up opportunities in those two cycles. This is our opportunity to save America.”