It appears Tim Sheehy, hand-picked by Republican Party honchos to challenge Jon Tester for one of Montana’s Senate seats, must be feeling a little shaky about the race.

Despite tons of out-of-state money flowing into his campaign Sheehy apparently thinks the increasingly befuddled Donald Trump will come to his rescue in Bozeman next week.

What’s puzzling, of course, is why any of this is necessary. Just look at the facts. Every statewide elected office in Montana is held by Republicans except Tester’s Senate seat.  One might think, given the obvious, that Mr. Sheehy could probably settle for doing his own campaigning and presenting himself to Montana’s voters without the brash accompaniment of Trump’s tidal waves of lies, insults and threats.

But apparently this “American hero” as Trump calls him, isn’t confident that he can pull this one off on his own and needs another out-of-stater to tell Montanans how to vote.

Or maybe it’s to convince us that Sheehy, who has never run for elected office and remains in far too many ways, an unknown quantity, should replace Montana’s senior Senator because his total lack of experience at public policy or governing will serve the state so much better than Tester.

Whether you like Tester or not, one has to acknowledge that he was a State senator for eight years, during which time he rose to be elected President of the Montana Senate by his colleagues. After winning in 2006, Tester has now been negotiating the sharp teeth of the U.S. Senate for 18 years.  If there’s one thing Tester lacks, it’s certainly not extensive experience in making law, appropriating funds, implementing programs, and overseeing the vast spectrum of the federal government.

But here’s the rub — Sheehy’s hoped-for reinforcement has been having a rather rough go of it lately.  Trump’s pick of J.D. Vance as his vice president candidate has not exactly thrilled the GOP’s top dogs.  In fact, just the opposite as Vance keeps stumbling over his own words and positions, including his incredible statement that the country is being run by “childless cat ladies.”

They say when you find yourself in a hole, quit digging.  But Vance has in fact, dug the hole much deeper by doubling down on his belief that unless you have kids, you’re a liability to society because you won’t care as much about the future.  Apparently that would include Dolly Parton, who made a conscious decision not to have children but is certainly one of the most accomplished, caring, generous, and much-loved women in the world.

Yet, while Vance brings unneeded negative coverage to the campaign, Old Donald is having a very rough ride of his own. Just this week he had what can only be described as a disastrous interview with the National Association of Black Journalists in which his racism and sexism were on full display.

There may be places an increasingly confused Donald Trump feels he can get away with claiming Vice President Kamala Harris “happened to turn Black” several years ago — but not at a convention of Black journalists. Since Harris’ mother is Indian and her father is Jamaican, she is rightfully both Indian and Black — and assailing her race is just another low in the very low life of the ex-president.

One thing Sheehy should hope is that Trump actually remembers what seat he’s running for.  Just this week in another bid to prop up a candidate in Pennsylvania, Trump’s old and tired brain mis-fired again, and he twice claimed his support for “the future governor” of Pennsylvania.  But the candidate, David McCormick, is running for the Senate. It would be funny were it not so pitiful — and just another in the growing evidence of Trump’s declining faculties.

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