Sam Forstag is running to flip this open seat vacated by Rep. Ryan Zinke (R). Zinke, who served as Secretary of the Interior during the first Trump administration, cited health reasons for his decision not to run for reelection. He previously won this district with 52% of the vote, underperforming President Trump in 2024. Forstag won a competitive primary and now faces Zinke’s hand-picked successor, Army veteran and radio host Aaron Flint, in the general election.
After working his way through school at the University of Montana, Forstag went to work for the Forest Service, where he climbed the ranks to become a smokejumper – a firefighter who parachutes into remote areas to stop wildfires before they grow. Between fire seasons, he never stopped showing up for Montanans, working as an organizer and an advocate at the state legislature, where he fought for public education, libraries, healthcare and constitutional freedoms. When Elon Musk and his so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) tried to gut the Forest Service and public land agencies, he organized against the proposed cuts and rallied Montanans around the real-life impacts of congressional inaction.
Forstag’s campaign is focused on affordability but also on the impacts decisions in Washington have in places as remote as Western Montana. The domestic consequences of the Iran war on prices and the loss of American servicemembers are just some examples of how he is connecting U.S. foreign policy blunders to folks’ everyday lives. Montana also holds a unique position in the U.S. nuclear enterprise as the state which holds most of America’s nuclear ICBM force. Montana is often referred to as the “nuclear sponge” due to the likelihood these missile silos are targeted first in a nuclear exchange. Forstag understands the existential threat Montanans face as a result and is committed to reducing nuclear risks once he is elected to Congress.
