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Freshman Sen. Tim Sheehy, R-Mont., was targeted with death threats and other extreme insults by a left-wing city commissioner candidate from Montana’s capital city of Helena, who called his office several weeks ago to leave her thoughts about the Republican senator over a voicemail.
The voicemail came in July, shortly after Sheehy voted with his Republican colleagues to pass the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, a sweeping tax and spending package from Republicans that angered many Democrats, including Helena city commissioner candidate Haley McKnight, following its passage.
“Hi, this is Haley McKnight. I’m a constituent in Helena, Montana,” McKnight started off in her voicemail, a recording of which was obtained and verified by Fox News Digital. “I just wanted to let you know that you are the most insufferable kind of coward and thief. You just stripped away healthcare for 17 million Americans, and I hope you’re really proud of that. I hope that one day you get pancreatic cancer, and it spreads throughout your body so fast that they can’t even treat you for it.”
But the anger didn’t stop there. During the roughly minute-long voicemail that phone logs reportedly show came in on the afternoon of July 1, McKnight launches into insults about Sheehy’s fertility and his children, before warning the senator not to “meet me on the streets.”
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U.S. Sen. Tim Sheehy, R-Mont., (left) and Helena City Commissioner candidate Haley McKnight (right). (Photos from Haley for Helena and Andrew Harnik via Getty Images)
“I hope you die in the street like a dog,” McKnight continued. “One day, you’re going to live to regret this. I hope that your children never forgive you. I hope that you are infertile. I hope that you manage to never get a boner ever again. You are the worst piece of sh– I have ever, ever, ever had the misfortune of looking at … God forbid that you ever meet me on the streets because I will make you regret it. F— you. I hope you die.”
McKnight added that Sheehy doesn’t “serve Montanans,” but rather just his “own private interests.”
“All that you have done since you have gotten into power is do sh– for yourself.”
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McKnight, originally from North Carolina but now living and working in Montana, owns a small business called Sage & Oats Trading Post, which McKnight describes as “a successful Native American-owned gift store” on her campaign website. She also runs a consulting and design business called Morningstar Design Ltd Co, and is the president and a board member of the Helena Young Professionals group. She touts being the recipient of the Helena Chamber’s 20 under 40 award.
“I am always ready to stand up for what I believe and challenge the status quo,” McKnight’s “About” web page on her campaign website reads, which lists priorities like housing for all, better governmental transparency, increased funding for public art and music, and more accessible streets and downtown living.
Montana State Capitol building, located in Helena, Montana. (Photo by: Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
In an interview with a local news outlet, McKnight touts her past volunteer work for the Obama campaign and more recently working on Democrat candidate Steve Held’s campaign for Congress. Held did not make it out of the primary.
Meanwhile, public campaign donation records reportedly show McKnight has donated to multiple Democratic candidates, according to records reviewed by Fox News Digital.
The Helena city commissioner race, which is traditionally nonpartisan, is her first time running for any sort of political office. McKnight was originally one of five declared nonpartisan candidates before she advanced to the November general election after finishing third in a nonpartisan primary in September.
“I’m a constituent, and I was responding to some horrible policy with some justified rage,” McKnight told Fox News Digital about the voicemail when reached for comment. “I would hope that if Sheehy was so rattled by my voicemail, he would have contacted me instead of leaking my information to conservative news media the night before an election. It feels like a cheap shot. I’m one of his constituents, and you know, this message is nothing that I’d say to my grandmother or in front of any children, it was meant for Senator Sheehy alone.”
McKnight said it was “laughable” that this is how Sheehy responds to constituent voicemails.
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“I also would have thought that somebody from the armed forces could have handled some tough language,” McKnight added. Sheehy is a former Navy SEAL who was shot while deployed in Afghanistan.
Tim Sheehy, founder of Bridger Aerospace, seen in the Bridger hangar in Bozeman, Montana, US, on Thursday, Jan. 18, 2024. Sheehy is a former Navy SEAL. (Photographer: Louise Johns/Bloomberg via Getty Images )
Meanwhile, McKnight went on to say she was simply trying to “convey the gravity of the situation” with her voicemail. She added that she was not intending to threaten Sheehy with her voicemail. McKnight also reportedly told the National Review she “obviously” had no intent of hurting Sheehy, reportedly telling the outlet: “I couldn’t, I’m a woman.”
“I wanted to drive home the struggles that people that I know are going through because of his policies. I think people were kind of shocked at my specificity, but these are things that are affecting people in my community,” McKnight told Fox News Digital, adding that Sheehy was spending too much time blocking the release of “the Epstein files” as opposed to understanding the struggles Montanans are going through.
But, when pressed on whether McKnight stood by her rhetoric from the voicemail, particularly after public officials from both sides of the aisle have called for folks to turn down the heat in light of the spate of political violence that the United States has faced recently, she simply responded: “No comment on that.”
“I have received numerous death and rape threats since this story has been published,” McKnight said when pressed even further. “My business is being threatened at the moment because of the actions of the senator,” she added, in reference to Sheehy publicly sharing her voicemail with the media.
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“It’s completely politically motivated,” McKnight concluded. “It’s a cheap shot the night before an election … the only thing left I have to say is release the Epstein files.”
Montana has no major statewide elections this year.
Tim Sheehy prepares to debate U.S. Sen. Jon Tester on campus at the University of Montana in Missoula, Mont. Sheehy eventually beat Tester in the subsequent election to take over his Montana Senate seat. (The Missoulian via AP)
In comments to the National Review, McKnight added that, “to see [Sheehy] throw away what Montanans need and want for his own betterment is enough to make me, yeah, want to fight him on site.”
“I’ll gladly say that, because I think in the time of rising fascism, we shouldn’t be afraid to say these things,” she added.
Meanwhile, when pressed by the outlet over whether she thought her voicemail went too far, McKnight reportedly said she didn’t think so, adding that she has had friends die of pancreatic cancer because of an inability to access care they required. “This is a man who’s so rich that he’s never, ever going to have to deal with that problem,” McKnight reportedly said.
In her comments to Fox News Digital, McKnight also recalled having a friend die from pancreatic cancer “because he couldn’t afford to treat it.”
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Montana Republican U.S. Senate candidate Tim Sheehy speaks during a rally for Donald Trump when he was running for president, at the Brick Breeden Fieldhouse at Montana State University on August 9, 2024 in Bozeman, Montana. (Michael Ciaglo/Getty Images)
McKnight, much like Democrat Attorney General candidate in Virginia, Jay Jones, who has been in hot water for comments about wanting to murder his political rival and his family, is an example of heightened political rhetoric that members of Congress and other public officials have expressed concern over.
“It doesn’t matter if it’s coming from one side or the other, directed at one party or another, or one person or another. It is all wrong – and it makes us all less safe,” Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, said of political violence in September following the assassination of Charlie Kirk. Shapiro has been joined by members from both parties calling on others to turn down the heat amid a spate of political violence the country has seen.
When reached for comment about the voicemail, Sheehy spokesman Tate Mitchell said, “We hope Ms. McKnight gets the help she clearly needs and wish her well.”