ICYMI: Helena City Commission Candidate Wished Cancer on Senator Sheehy in Threatening Voicemail: ‘I Hope You Die’

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 3, 2025

ICYMI: Helena City Commission Candidate Wished Cancer on Senator Sheehy in Threatening Voicemail: 'I Hope You Die'

National Review published a story on a voicemail left for Senator Sheehy by Haley McKnight, a liberal candidate for Helena City Commission. In the message, McKnight wishes terminal pancreatic cancer, death, and infertility on the senator, saying "I hope that you die in the street like a dog." The story follows a trend of violent political rhetoric against Republicans from the left.

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Helena City Commission Candidate Wished Cancer on Senator Sheehy in Threatening Voicemail: 'I Hope You Die'

Audrey Fahlberg

November 3, 2025

National Review

On July 1, freshman Senator Tim Sheehy's (R., Montana) Helena district office received a disturbing voicemail.

Earlier that day, Sheehy had joined his Senate Republican colleagues in advancing the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" to President Donald Trump's desk-a vote that apparently did not sit well with one of his constituents, Helena City Commission candidate Haley McKnight.

"Hi, this is Haley McKnight. I'm a constituent in Helena Montana, and I just wanted to let you know that you are the most insufferable kind of coward and thief. You just stripped away health care for 17 million Americans. And I hope you're really proud of that," McKnight said in an apparent reference to the GOP-passed reconciliation bill's Medicaid reforms. "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. I hope that you die in the street like a dog. I…oooooohh. One day you're gonna live to regret this."

She then expressed hope that Sheehy, a married father of four, would become infertile, get pancreatic cancer, and die.

"I hope that your children never forgive you," the voicemail continues. "I hope that you are infertile. I hope you never, manage to get a boner ever again. You are the worst piece of shit I've ever, ever, ever had, uh, the misfortune of looking at. And you don't serve Montanans. You serve your own private interests. All that you have done since you've gotten into power is do shit for yourself. God forbid that you ever meet me on the streets, because I will make you regret it. F*ck you. I hope you die."

Sheehy's Helena district office phone logs show that McKnight left her voicemail at 1:10 pm MT on July 1.

A North Carolina native, McKnight moved to Montana in 2017 to work as an AmeriCorps Vista member in Butte before moving to Kalispell and then Helena, according to the Montana Free Press. A progressive-leaning small business owner who serves as president of Helena Young Professionals, McKnight is currently running to serve on the Helena City Commission.

While the Helena City Commission elections are technically nonpartisan, McKnight identifies as liberal and OpenSecrets records show she has previously donated to a Democrat. According to her public remarks and her campaign site, McKnight's political priorities include increased accessibility, sustainability, public transit funding. If elected, she also hopes to institute a moratorium on AirBnBs and VRBOs.

Reached by phone on Monday morning, McKnight did not walk back the comments. Instead, she doubled down her view that Sheehy is unconcerned with regular Montanans and is solely preoccupied with enriching himself and his personal business interests while in office. She also referenced the Trump administration's decision in early October to cancel federal funding for a green hydrogen project in the Northwest amid the shutdown, prompting pushback from Democratic politicians in Montana and other states.

In McKnight's view, Sheehy's rhetoric blaming Democrats for the shutdown is unpersuasive. Regular people on food stamps are suffering "because of his inaction," which makes her "furious."

"To see him throw away what Montanans need and want for his own betterment is enough to make me, yeah, want to fight him on site," she said. "And I'll gladly say that, because I think in the time of rising fascism, we shouldn't be afraid to say these things."

Pressed on whether her voicemail went too far, McKnight said, "No, I don't think so." She said she has friends who have died from pancreatic cancer because they "could not get the help that they need and the health care that they desperately required."

"They had to spend their entire retirement savings on cancer treatment and then die before they could ever enjoy the rest of their lives," she added. "And this is a man who's so rich that he's never, ever going to have to deal with that problem."

A few minutes after her brief interview with National Review, McKnight called back and expressed confusion about the newsworthiness of her July 1 voicemail considering Helena is a town of roughly 32,000 people. After all, since she entered the race, she's been the target of "intense political rhetoric" from Helena residents, she explained.

"I'm just wondering how that's news," she said. "What I'm saying out of frustration and a deep care for my community to a senator essentially punching up is newsworthy, as opposed to, I don't know, people like white supremacists in my community who have chosen to go after me in Facebook comments because I'm a Jewish woman with liberal politics."

As McKnight's sees it, Sheehy has done more harm to the American people than an angry voicemail ever could.

"Obviously, I have no intent of hurting Senator Sheehy. I couldn't. I'm- I'm a woman," she said, expressing her hope that she'd never want to go to jail over a voicemail. "I'm kind of a firebrand, and I have a way of saying things that doesn't sit well with people sometimes, but I absolutely have no intent of hurting him, whereas the people who have disagreed with me online, or, you know, with the newspaper when I've been reported about absolutely have an intent of hurting me."

In her view, it's an "apples and oranges" comparison.

Pressed yet again about her decision to leave a voicemail expressing hope that Sheehy will get pancreatic cancer and die, she said: "Oh, yeah. And I can, I can hope those things. Still a free-it's still a free country."

In addition to McKnight, several other off-year candidates for higher office have recently come under fire for extreme rhetoric. The most prominent example is Jay Jones, the Democratic nominee for Virginia attorney general, who sent a series of text messages to a former colleague in 2022 wishing death upon then-Republican Virginia House Speaker Todd Gilbert, as NR first reported.

Reached for comment on McKnight's July voicemail and November 3 interview comments to NR, Sheehy spokesman Tate Mitchell said: "We hope Ms. McKnight gets the help she clearly needs and wish her well."

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Contact: Tate Mitchell, Jack O'Brien