FIRST ON FOX: A conservative super PAC announced on Wednesday that it is endorsing GOP Montana Senate candidate Tim Sheehy while also rolling out a 7 figure investment into encouraging Montanans to vote early.
“Today, the Sentinel Action Fund endorsed Tim Sheehy for U.S. Senate in Montana. Along with the endorsement, the Sentinel Action Fund announced a seven-figure investment and the launch of SkipTheLineMT.vote, a new initiative to educate Republican voters on how to request absentee ballots,” the group announced in a press release promoting the website SkipTheLineMT.vote.
Sheehy, a Purple Heart recipient, was also endorsed by GOP presidential nominee and former President Trump, won the GOP primary in Montana on Tuesday night and will face incumbent Dem. Sen. John Tester in what many believe is a strong opportunity for Republicans to take back control of the Senate.
“The Montana Senate race will be one of the most important elections for Republicans to retake the Senate majority in 2024,” Jessica Anderson, President of the Sentinel Action Fund, said in the press release. “The Sentinel Action Fund is thrilled to endorse Tim Sheehy for U.S. Senate in Montana, and we are committed to using our robust election infrastructure and SkipTheLineMT.vote to turn out voters for Sheehy through absentee vote-by-mail, ballot harvesting, and ballot chasing.”
A Voter fills out their ballots on at a polling place (Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)
Sentinel Action Fund, which bills itself as the “only conservative Super PAC with a year-round ground game committed to turning out absentee, early vote, and ‘day of’ voters,” is focused on competing with Democrats for the early vote in key swing states which typically has been something Republicans have been criticized for not focusing on in the past in large part due to concerns about voter integrity.
“We also think that Montana has made some really great strides in election integrity over the last four years. That gives more security and comfort for voters to vote early and absentee,” Anderson told Fox News Digital.
“I think the message is that reforms have been made that provide more security and comfort for Montana voters who vote early, to vote the absentee, and in particular, those low propensity voters that are not consistent habitual voters but will come out for Trump will come out for a big Senate race like this,” Anderson continued.
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Tim Sheehy, founder and chief executive officer of Bridger Aerospace and US Republican Senate candidate for Montana (Louise Johns)
“The lowest barrier to entry for them to vote is to vote early or to vote absentee. So we’re excited about the make-up of the state, which is why the Skip The Line Montana site is kind of this catchall where all voters can go get information about how to vote early and see all the rules that govern how the election is run.”
Sentinel Action Fund’s announcement comes a day after former President Trump Republican National Committee on Tuesday announced the launch of what they call their “Swamp The Vote USA” effort to promote early voting.
It’s a major reversal from Trump’s stance four years ago, when he repeatedly condemned early-in-person voting and mail-in balloting and said they were to blame for what he argued was massive election fraud that led to his defeat at the hands of President Biden.
“Republicans must win and we will use every appropriate tool to beat the Democrats because they are destroying our country,” Trump argued in his statement.
Anderson told Fox News Digital that Trump’s quote is “fantastic.”
“I thought it actually shows just how much he’s willing to embrace, legal ways to and tactics and methods to turn voters out,” Anderson said. “He is he’s not leaving any stone unturned. So our effort is completely complementary.”
“I think the party has made a tremendous decision, and a very shrewd kind of investment that’s now following to embrace absentee ballots and early votes while also calling for election integrity. We can do two things at once.”
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Donald Trump arrives to Trump Tower, Thursday, May 30, 2024 after being found guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. (Felipe Ramales for Fox News Digital)
Montana, a state Trump won by 16 points in 2020, is now the home of Senate race that the Cook Political Report ranks as a “toss up.”
“Jon Tester has failed Montanans, consistently voting in line with Chuck Schumer and Joe Biden while pretending to be a so-called ‘moderate.,'” Anderson told Fox News Digital.
“Montanans know Jon Tester does not represent them and their values, so they have taken the important step to nominate Republican Tim Sheehy,” Anderson continued. “Sheehy is a trusted conservative champion who will fight for Montanans in Washington and support President Trump’s efforts to restore integrity in the courts and curtail the overreach of the federal bureaucracy. We look forward to his victory this November.”
Fox News Digital’s Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report