What should have been a busy start to the holiday season has turned into a nightmare for Major and Michelle Robinson, the owners of Sage & Oats Trading Post in downtown Helena. In just two days, their cosy gift shop went from prepping for Christmas shoppers to fighting to stay afloat after being dragged into a national political storm.

It all started on Monday when their store manager, Haley McKnight, warned the couple that a national news story was about to break. Months earlier, McKnight, who was running for a seat on the Helena city commission, had left an angry voicemail for U.S. Senator Tim Sheehy.

Furious over his support for the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, she told him she hoped he’d get cancer and “die in the street like a dog.” Those words resurfaced on the eve of Helena’s local

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