Tim Sheehy, the Republican Party’s Senate nominee in Montana, was caught on a recently surfaced audio recording arguing that women have been “indoctrinated” to have pro-abortion-rights views. Sheehy’s comments echo rhetoric from other Republican candidates minimizing the importance of the abortion issue ahead of this fall’s election.
“Young people—listen up, they’ve been indoctrinated for too long. We don’t even try to talk to them anymore,” Sheehy said. He went on to complain that after speaking to a group of young people, “[Y]oung women between the age of 19 and 30, abortion is their No. 1 concern. That’s all they want to talk about. They are single-issue voters.”
In the recording, which was made in 2023, Sheehy also repeated the false Republican claim that Democrats support abortion after birth, noting, “It’s called murder. That is the position of the American Democrat Party.”
Sheehy is locked in a close race against Democratic Sen. Jon Tester, who has held the seat since 2007 and supports abortion rights. Montana’s Senate seat could determine which party holds a majority after the November election.