Heard was elected to succeed Tim Freeman in 2014. He campaigned on continuity with Freeman, who retired from state politics to run for Douglas County commissioner.
Oregon Senate
Following the resignation of Jeff Kruse, Heard was appointed to the Oregon Senate on April 9, 2018. On June 20, 2019, all 11 Republican state senators for Oregon, including Heard, walked out of the Oregon State Capitol, instead going into hiding, some even fleeing the state. Their aim was to prevent a vote on a cap-and-trade bill. There are 30 Senate districts including a Republican-held seat, vacant at the time due to the death of an officeholder. Without the Republican senators, the remaining 18 Democratic state senators could not reach a quorum of 20 to hold a vote.
On December 1, 2019, an investigation commissioned by the Washington House of Representatives reported that a Washington state house member, alleged white supremacist Matt Shea, had planned and participated in domestic terrorism on at least three occasions. On December 19, he was accused of domestic terrorism in a bipartisan report released by the Washington State House of Representatives. This included his participation, organizing, planning and promotion of the 2014 Bundy standoff in Nevada, a 2015 armed conflict in Priest River, Idaho, and the 2016 armed Occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Harney County, Oregon. Shea led a delegation of right-wing legislators from Oregon, Washington and Idaho that, without disclosing the true intent, met with law enforcement officers on January 9, 2016, in Burns, Oregon. There they were appraised of intended law enforcement strategies for dealing with the refuge's occupiers. The state House district's Republican Representative Cliff Bentz, attended the meeting, despite being warned by Harney County Judge Steven Grasty to decline the invitation. Bentz did, however, warn the then-state Representative Heard that it would be "inappropriate" for Heard to attend, though Heard ignored the advice. Shea then disclosed those confidential law enforcement intention details to the Bundys, according to the report.
