Sheehy avoided interviews with local and national reporters, and there is little evidence of a significant grassroots campaign. The Montana GOP’s website lists only three events for the entire month of October, none of which include Sheehy. Sheehy’s events are by invitation only and not open to the media. His campaign has not responded to repeated requests to interview him or to cover the event with him talking to voters.
The invitation, obtained by NBC News, showed Sheehy holding a fundraiser in Texas this week.
Still, Daines argued that Sheehy was connecting with voters and that his walled-off strategy was working.
“He’s been all over the state of Montana and he’s rooted. Handshake-to-handshake is working really well for Tim Sheehy right now,” Daines said. “When he’s holding events, I’m seeing turnout that’s unlike anything I’ve seen when I’m a candidate and unlike any other candidate I’ve seen.”
‘If they lose it, they’ll just fade away’
Montana is one of five states with bipartisan senators, and that number is certain to decrease in this election. The question is how much. The prospect of Tester losing in November has raised questions about Democrats’ ability to get elected in today’s increasingly polarized political landscape in Montana, especially with a changing electorate.
“Montana has definitely moved further to the right in terms of the way it votes,” Daines said.
“When I first ran for the U.S. House in 2012, there was one statewide Republican and seven statewide Democrats,” he said. “Today, eight of the nine at-large office holders in Montana are Republicans.”
Longtime Montana political operative and strategist Pepper Peterson called the Senate race “one for the political science books,” likening the turnaround she’s seen in Montana to working with Democrats in Tennessee in the early 2000s. If Republicans win, Peterson said, “Democrats have been dead in Montana for probably 16 years, maybe longer.”