With each election cycle comes the inevitable, disturbing competition for which Republican candidate will offhandedly make the most deranged comment. It’s only July, but here’s an early entry: Meet Tim Sheehy, a military veteran, ultra-wealthy founder of a drone technology company, and anti-abortion extremist, who's running to oust three-term Democratic incumbent Sen. Jon Tester. At a Monday campaign event, Sheehy addressed some of the very fair criticisms he’s received from Tester’s camp, which include comments about Sheehy trying to "buy Montana" to make it a "playground for the rich." In audio from the event obtained by Jezebel, Sheehy seemed to compare himself to a falsely accused rapist, victimized by Tester’s “attacks” on him: “His ads, you'll notice his campaign is based on one thing: character assassination. He can't talk about what he's done, he just has to trash me. It’s all lies. People ask me, how do you fight back? Number one, I can’t, because it’s like, if you’re not a rapist, how do you prove you’re not a rapist? I can’t prove it, it’s impossible.” “That’s what he’s counting on is throwing out enough lies about me that people have questions about me,” Sheehy concluded. “And the other thing he wants me to do is come out and spend all my time defending myself against his lies, because then I’m not on message.” The comments are, on top of being deeply offensive by insinuating rape victims lie, just downright puzzling. I can’t imagine what goes through someone’s head when, at an event to connect with community members, they choose to defend themselves from political attacks (or, in Sheehy’s case, truths) by comparing themselves to an accused rapist. Tester’s criticisms wouldn’t be wildly hard to defend against if Sheehy had any actual defenses. Tester, who’s held public office for more than two decades, pointed out on MSNBC in June that Sheehy hasn’t been in Montana that long, having only moved to the state in 2014: “Quite frankly, I’ve got a lot of equipment that I’ve owned longer than he’s been in the state of Montana,” Tester said. Surely there’s some other way to respond to this then *checks notes* bringing up the topic of rape and implying that victims lie? Or, for that matter, making any of this about rape at all…??? The Montana Senate race could be pivotal to Democrats’ ability to retain control of the Senate and protect against terrifying attacks on reproductive rights, especially given the latest presidential polling that has former President Trump on the path to reelection. Still, Sheehy faces a decent amount of hurdles even in the deep-red state, like struggles with name recognition, or fundraising, seeing as Tester has thus far out-raised him 3:1. Sheehy’s anti-abortion extremism could also be a liability since the majority of Montanans support legal abortion. Sheehy has repeatedly pushed the lie that Tester “supports elective abortion on demand up until the moment of birth,” citing Tester’s support for the non-controversial Women’s Health Protection Act—a bill that would codify a right to receive abortion through fetal viability, or with exceptions for medical emergencies as needed. Sheehy has a relatively low-profile, beyond apparently identifying with accused rapists. But what we do know is… curious. He’s previously spoken about homeschooling his kids and also schooling them using a faith-based co-op with other children. And he’s seemingly suggested the federal government shouldn’t have any oversight over primary education: “We don’t have the federal government giving us a handbook saying teach your children this. We don’t need that.” Then, there’s the Washington Post’s reporting from April that showed Sheehy was cited in 2015 for inadvertently discharging…
