Montana Dem candidate issues voicemail containing death threats to GOP senator

Freshman Sen. Tim Sheehy, R-Mont., was the target of death threats and other extreme insults from a left-wing city commissioner candidate in Helena, Montana’s capital, who called his office several weeks ago to share his thoughts on the Republican senator over a voicemail.

The voicemail came in July, shortly after Sheehy voted with fellow Republicans to pass the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, a sweeping Republican tax and spending package that angered many Democrats, including Helena city commissioner candidate Haley McKnight, after its passage.

“Hello, this is Haley McKnight. I’m a voter from Helena, Montana,” McKnight began his 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 type of coward and thief. You just took away health care for 17 million Americans, and I hope you’re really proud of that. I hope one day you get pancreatic cancer and it spreads throughout your body so quickly that they can’t even treat you.”

But the anger did not stop there. During the approximately one-minute voicemail message allegedly received on the afternoon of July 1, McKnight launches into insults about the fertility of Sheehy and his children, before warning the senator not to “meet me on the street.”

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U.S. Sen. Tim Sheehy, R-Mont., (left) and Helena City Commissioner candidate Haley McKnight (right). (Haley photos for Helena and Andrew Harnik via Getty Images)

“I hope you die in the street like a dog,” McKnight continued. “One day you’ll live to regret this. I hope your kids never forgive you. I hope you’re infertile. I hope you manage to never have a boner again. You’re the worst piece of shit I’ve ever, ever had the misfortune of looking at…God forbid you meet me on the street because I’ll make you regret it. F— you. I hope you die.”

McKnight added that Sheehy is not “serving Montanans,” but rather simply his “own private interests.”

“All you’ve done since you’ve been in power is do things 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 gift shop” on his campaign website. She also runs a consultancy and design business called Morningstar Design Ltd Co, and is chair and board member of the Helena Young Professionals Group. She brags about receiving the Helena Chamber’s 20 under 40 award.

“I am always willing to stand up for what I believe and challenge the status quo,” reads McKnight’s “About” web page on her campaign website, which lists priorities like housing for all, better government 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 media outlet, McKnight touts his past volunteer work for the Obama campaign and, more recently, his work on Democratic candidate Steve Held’s campaign for Congress. Held failed to make it out of the primary.

Meanwhile, public campaign donation records reportedly show McKnight donated to several Democratic candidates, according to records reviewed by Fox News Digital.

The race for Helena city commissioner, which is traditionally nonpartisan, is his first bid for political office. McKnight was originally one of five declared nonpartisan candidates before advancing to the November general election after finishing third in a nonpartisan primary in September.

“I’m a voter and I was responding to horrible policy with justified rage,” McKnight told Fox News Digital of the voicemail when reached for comment. “I hope that if Sheehy had been so shaken by my voicemail, he would have contacted me instead of leaking my information to conservative media the day before the election. This feels like a low blow. I’m one of his constituents, and you know, this message is nothing I would say to my grandmother or in front of children, it was intended only for Senator Sheehy.”

McKnight said it was “laughable” that Sheehy would respond to constituent voicemails like this.

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“I also would have thought that someone in the armed forces might have used harsh language,” McKnight added. Sheehy is a former Navy SEAL who was shot down while deployed to Afghanistan.

Tim Sheehy, founder of Bridger Aerospace, seen in the Bridger hangar in Bozeman, Montana, United States, Thursday, January 18, 2024. Sheehy is a former Navy SEAL. (Photographer: Louise Johns/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Meanwhile, McKnight went on to say that she was simply trying to “convey the seriousness of the situation” with her voicemail. She added that she did not intend to threaten Sheehy with her voicemail. McKnight also reportedly told National Review that she “obviously” had no intention of hurting Sheehy, telling the outlet, “I couldn’t, I’m a woman.”

“I wanted to convey the struggles that people I know are going through because of his policies. I think people were a little shocked by my specificity, but these are things that affect people in my community,” McKnight told Fox News Digital, adding that Sheehy spent too much time blocking the release of the “Epstein files” instead of understanding the struggles Montanans are going through.

But when asked if McKnight was maintaining her voicemail rhetoric, especially after public officials on both sides of the aisle called on people to turn down the heat in light of the wave of political violence the United States has faced recently, she simply said, “No comment on that.”

“I have received numerous death and rape threats since this story was published,” McKnight said when pressed further. “My business is currently under threat because of the senator’s actions,” she added, referring to the public sharing of her voicemail message with the media.

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“This is completely politically motivated,” McKnight concluded. “This is a low blow on the eve of an election…the only thing left for me to say is release the Epstein files.”

Montana does not have a major statewide election this year.

Tim Sheehy prepares to debate U.S. Senator Jon Tester on the campus of the University of Montana in Missoula, Montana. Sheehy ultimately defeated Tester in the following election to take his seat in the Montana Senate. (The Missoulian via AP)

In comments to National Review, McKnight added that “seeing (Sheehy) throw away what Montanans need and want for their own good is enough to make me, yes, want to fight him on the spot.”

“I will say it with pleasure, because I think that in times of the rise of fascism, we should not be afraid to say these things,” she added.

Meanwhile, when asked by the outlet if she thought her voicemail message went too far, McKnight reportedly said she didn’t think so, adding that she had friends who died from pancreatic cancer due to the inability to access the care they needed. “This is a man who is so rich that he will never have to deal with this problem,” McKnight was quoted as saying.

In his comments to Fox News Digital, McKnight also recalled that a friend died of pancreatic cancer “because he couldn’t afford to treat it.”

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Montana Republican candidate for U.S. Senate Tim Sheehy speaks during a rally for Donald Trump as he ran for president, at Brick Breeden Fieldhouse at Montana State University August 9, 2024 in Bozeman, Montana. (Michael Ciaglo/Getty Images)

McKnight, like Democratic nominee for Virginia attorney general Jay Jones, who has been in hot water over his comments about wanting to assassinate his political rival and his family, is an example of heightened political rhetoric that has members of Congress and other public officials concerned.

“It doesn’t matter whether it comes from one side or the other, directed at one party or another, or one person or another. It’s all wrong — and it makes us all less safe,” Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, said of the political violence in September after Charlie Kirk’s killing. Shapiro was joined by members of both parties calling on others to tone down amid a wave of political violence the country has seen.

When reached for comment on the voicemail, Sheehy’s spokesperson Tate Mitchell said, “We hope Ms. McKnight gets the help she clearly needs and wish her well.”