It Sure Looks Like This GOP Senate Hopeful Doctored One Of His Campaign Ads

The campaign of Montana GOP Senate candidate Tim Sheehy appears to have doctored a recent TV advertisement to remove a logo of the Property and Environment Research Center from the shirt he was wearing. PERC is a Montana-based think tank with a history of advocating for the privatization of federal public lands, which has become a central issue in the race.

Earlier this month, Sheehy’s campaign sent out public land-focused mailers to Montana voters. The mailer features a picture of Sheehy sitting at a campsite with his family and wearing a flannel shirt with the PERC logo clearly visible on one sleeve.

“Tim Sheehy knows public lands belong in public hands,” it reads.

This reporter posted the image on X (formerly Twitter), and anotherX user, an apparent Sheehy supporter, accused HuffPost of circulating an edited image.

The unidentified X user claimed that the picture had been altered to include PERC’s logo and accused this HuffPost reporter of “yellow journalism.” (A quick reverse image search on Google showed that the same image, including the PERC logo, appeared in an opinion piece that Sheehy published Sept. 11 in the Ravalli Republic, a weekday newspaper published in Hamilton, Montana.)

As proof, the X user pointed to a TV advertisement that Sheehy released last week and that was filmed at the same time and location as the photo on the mailer. Sheehy is wearing the same shirt but the PERC logo is missing.

A close inspection revealed that it isn’t the mailer that was doctored but likely the TV ad.

In the ad, Sheehy, a former Navy SEAL and millionaire businessman, talks about establishing roots in Montana and growing his aerial firefighting company. The Minnesota native calls Montana his “home” and says he’s