Sam Forstag, a 31-year-old union leader and firefighter, is the projected winner of a Montana Democratic primary after defeating three rivals. His run has been boosted by endorsements from Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, alongside other
By the time the rally reached its most personal point, the argument wasn’t about party messaging. It was about jobs—who lost them, who kept fighting, and who ended up answering.
In Missoula last week, Democratic nominee Sam Forstag stood before a crowd with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and described what he says happened to the U.S. Forest Service after billionaire Elon Musk’s cuts. Forstag. a union leader and a former smokejumper—firefighters who parachute into remote areas to fight wildfires—told the room that the cuts eliminated a quarter of employees in Montana.
“They fired were the lowest-pay workers in our agency. ” Forstag said. pointing to people “making less than $20 an hour” who. he said. did the on-the-ground work—“swinging tools and conducting the science” needed to keep roads. trails. and the “air and water” safe. “When I reached out to our supposed representative, Ryan Zinke, time and time again, I got crickets,” he said.
Forstag’s break from politics as usual is partly the story of how he decided to run. He said he spent a year fighting the cuts with his union while working wildfires as a smokejumper. And when. in his view. the layoffs turned the pressure onto fellow union members. he chose to take the fight to the person he sees as responsible.
“So after a year of fighting those cuts with my union, while fighting wildfires as a smokejumper, I decided that if they’re going to come after my co-workers and my union members’ jobs, I’m going to come take his,” Forstag said at the event.
That message landed with Ocasio-Cortez. who praised his “heroism. ” and cast the moment as a chance to send a working-class figure to Congress. “When something is burning in this state. Sam runs towards the fire. that’s the kind of person he is. and that’s the kind of person we have the opportunity to send to Congress. ” she said.
The Democratic primary itself has now put Forstag at the center of that pitch. He is the projected winner of a Montana Democratic primary. defeating three other Democrats: Ryan Busse. Russell Cleveland. and Matt Rains. The campaign’s outside momentum. the result suggests. came at least in part from endorsements from top progressive figures. including Sen. Bernie Sanders, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Rep. Jamie Raskin.
Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez met Forstag during their “Fighting Oligarchy Tour” stop in Montana last year, before he announced his candidacy for the House. Sanders later described the working-class profile and the rally as factors behind his decision-making.
“He was an impressive guy, and I think that rally had some impact on his decision-making, and he is a working-class guy who I think is prepared to stand up to big money, and is the kind of guy that we need in the house now,” Sanders told HuffPost.
Ocasio-Cortez’s presence in Montana also fueled a wider national spotlight. The rally helped earn Forstag a photo shoot in Esquire and speculation that he could become progressives’ next blue-collar sensation.
Even as his rise accelerates, the race that brought him here included a warning shot from his opponents about where his support would come from.
Polling last month suggested most Montanans hadn’t heard of Forstag and showed Busse with a lead in the race. Busse—who is described as a gun control advocate and who ran for governor of Montana in 2024—also argued that support from outside the state would not help him.
“ The voters we need to win in November live in places like Manhattan, MT, and feel really betrayed by national politicians that fly in from places like Manhattan, NY. I’ll stick with the MT folks,” Busse said in a statement last week to the Montana Free Press.
Now, Forstag’s next test will be defined less by endorsements and more by a statewide contrast in November. He will face the winner of the Republican primary in a general election for a House seat being vacated by Rep. Ryan Zinke, whose retirement has given Democrats hope of flipping the district.
Forstag’s campaign message—rooted in his account of what federal policy cuts have done to Montana’s Forest Service and the workers tied to it—sets up a familiar political fight over whose priorities win in Washington. But the timing and the personnel are what make this moment feel different: he is walking into a congressional race after a career built around rushing toward danger. and he is doing it with progressives trying to turn that image into a vote.
And in a district now open because Zinke is retiring, that vote will ultimately hinge on a question raised in the same breath as Forstag’s answer: whether Montana voters believe national attention is a help—or a distraction.
Sam Forstag Montana Democratic primary Bernie Sanders endorsement Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez endorsement Jamie Raskin endorsement Ryan Zinke retirement smokejumper U.S. Forest Service cuts Elon Musk Missoula rally Ryan Busse Russell Cleveland Matt Rains Montana politics 2024 congressional race