As he campaigns in one of the nation’s most competitive U.S. Senate races, Montana Republican Tim Sheehy recounts how he started an aerial firefighting business in his barn and built it into a publicly traded company on the front lines of increasingly dangerous wildfires. “That’s a success story,” he said in a June television interview.
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Reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission in recent months tell a different story about Bridger Aerospace, known for its “Super Scooper” planes that can remove up to 1,400 gallons at a time from a body of water to dump on a nearby wildfire.
Bridger is facing a cash crunch so dire that there is “substantial doubt about the Company’s ability to continue,” according to public filings that show the company lost $77.4 million last year and $20.1 million in the first three months of 2024. Several directors have left, including one who flagged concerns about internal auditing, as an unusually slow wildfire season in 2023 put the company at risk of defaulting on its debt.
And then last month, Sheehy said he couldn’t devote enough time to running the company and resigned — a move that Bridger, which had promoted his key role in “every facet” of the business, previously said would happen if he was elected to the Senate.
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“The business has disappointed,” said Vince Martin, a North Carolina-based investment analyst and blogger who has examined the SEC filings. “As a result, they don’t have a ton of room for error.”
In response to questions about the company’s finances, the Sheehy campaign released a statement saying, “Tim is proud of the successful company he created, the jobs he created, and he is proud to be an active firefighting pilot protecting our communities and our public lands.”
Bridger, in a statement, noted steady revenue growth at the “fast-growing, ambitious company” over the past five years, adding that it “has materially enhanced the composition and capabilities of its board of directors to lead the company in its next stage of growth.”
The company’s struggles have received little national attention even as Sheehy competes in a closely watched contest that could determine which party controls the Senate. Voters in the deep-red state of Montana heavily back former president Donald Trump — who endorsed Sheehy earlier this year — but have elected Democratic incumbent Jon Tester three times.
“He better win,” Trump said Friday night at a rally with Sheehy just 11 miles from Bridger’s headquarters at the Bozeman Yellowstone International Airport.
Sheehy, 38, has attracted national support largely on the strength of his biography as a war hero and entrepreneur, but his first campaign for public office has exposed some potential vulnerabilities.
Sheehy, an ex-Navy Seal who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, has faced scrutiny over an incident involving a firearm in Montana’s Glacier National Park in 2015. Documents show Sheehy told a park ranger at the time that he accidentally shot himself in his right arm and the wound was treated at a hospital. Sheehy told The Washington Post he did not shoot himself but had lied to the ranger, a federal law enforcement officer, to protect him and his platoon-mates from a potential military investigation into an older bullet wound he said he got in Afghanistan in 2012. He has talked about being shot in the arm in combat while campaigning.
He has also emphasized his business experience, telling voters that he has signed “the front of the paycheck, not just the back” while condemning Congress for the ballooning national debt.
“I’m a business owner,” Sheehy said during a March campaign event. “If my business isn’t doing well, I don’t get paid.”
Yet amid Bridger’s significant losses, Sheehy has received millions of dollars in compensation. He received a $2.3 million bonus on top of a $149,000 base salary in 2023, according to SEC filings, and a bonus of $4.4 million and a $450,000 base salary in 2022, as the company lost $42.1 million. Sheehy received additional income leasing two planes to Bridger and co-owning a business that provides flight training, SEC filings show. Sheehy also sold a plane to the company for $3.9 million; the filings don’t detail if he turned a profit or loss.
Cut through the 2024 election noise. Get The Campaign Moment newsletter.
Reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission in recent months tell a different story about Bridger Aerospace, known for its “Super Scooper” planes that can remove up to 1,400 gallons at a time from a body of water to dump on a nearby wildfire.
Bridger is facing a cash crunch so dire that there is “substantial doubt about the Company’s ability to continue,” according to public filings that show the company lost $77.4 million last year and $20.1 million in the first three months of 2024. Several directors have left, including one who flagged concerns about internal auditing, as an unusually slow wildfire season in 2023 put the company at risk of defaulting on its debt.
And then last month, Sheehy said he couldn’t devote enough time to running the company and resigned — a move that Bridger, which had promoted his key role in “every facet” of the business, previously said would happen if he was elected to the Senate.
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“The business has disappointed,” said Vince Martin, a North Carolina-based investment analyst and blogger who has examined the SEC filings. “As a result, they don’t have a ton of room for error.”
In response to questions about the company’s finances, the Sheehy campaign released a statement saying, “Tim is proud of the successful company he created, the jobs he created, and he is proud to be an active firefighting pilot protecting our communities and our public lands.”
Bridger, in a statement, noted steady revenue growth at the “fast-growing, ambitious company” over the past five years, adding that it “has materially enhanced the composition and capabilities of its board of directors to lead the company in its next stage of growth.”
The company’s struggles have received little national attention even as Sheehy competes in a closely watched contest that could determine which party controls the Senate. Voters in the deep-red state of Montana heavily back former president Donald Trump — who endorsed Sheehy earlier this year — but have elected Democratic incumbent Jon Tester three times.
“He better win,” Trump said Friday night at a rally with Sheehy just 11 miles from Bridger’s headquarters at the Bozeman Yellowstone International Airport.
Sheehy, 38, has attracted national support largely on the strength of his biography as a war hero and entrepreneur, but his first campaign for public office has exposed some potential vulnerabilities.
Sheehy, an ex-Navy Seal who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, has faced scrutiny over an incident involving a firearm in Montana’s Glacier National Park in 2015. Documents show Sheehy told a park ranger at the time that he accidentally shot himself in his right arm and the wound was treated at a hospital. Sheehy told The Washington Post he did not shoot himself but had lied to the ranger, a federal law enforcement officer, to protect him and his platoon-mates from a potential military investigation into an older bullet wound he said he got in Afghanistan in 2012. He has talked about being shot in the arm in combat while campaigning.
He has also emphasized his business experience, telling voters that he has signed “the front of the paycheck, not just the back” while condemning Congress for the ballooning national debt.
“I’m a business owner,” Sheehy said during a March campaign event. “If my business isn’t doing well, I don’t get paid.”
Yet amid Bridger’s significant losses, Sheehy has received millions of dollars in compensation. He received a $2.3 million bonus on top of a $149,000 base salary in 2023, according to SEC filings, and a bonus of $4.4 million and a $450,000 base salary in 2022, as the company lost $42.1 million. Sheehy received additional income leasing two planes to Bridger and co-owning a business that provides flight training, SEC filings show. Sheehy also sold a plane to the company for $3.9 million; the filings don’t detail if he turned a profit or loss.
