Smokejumper and union leader Sam Forstag is building support from both sides of the aisle as he gains momentum to flip Montana’s First Congressional District.
Former Montana governor and RNC chair Marc Racicot says “It’s not even a close call for me to stand in Sam’s corner,” making the case simple for Montanans: “[Forstag] cares about what he’s doing. He’s very well prepared. He has the right priorities.”
REMINDER: On top of Forstag gaining bipartisan support, Former Senator Jon Tester won the district in 2024 — making it clear that Montanans are ready for an independent fighter that’s ready to put them first.
DCCC Spokesperson Lindsay Reilly:
“Western Montanans don’t need another Republican rubber-stamp like Aaron Flint representing them in Washington. Montana families are ready to flip MT-01 and elect Sam Forstag — a proven leader whose top priority will always be Montanans.”
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MS NOW: Former RNC chair backs Democrat in coveted Montana district
- A Montana Democrat running for Congress in the red state has picked up what once would have seemed like an unlikely backer: a former GOP governor who was once chairman of the Republican National Committee.
- Marc Racicot, who won two terms as Montana’s governor in the 1990s before leading the RNC during George W. Bush’s first term, is set to endorse Sam Forstag’s bid for the state’s 1st Congressional District, currently held by a Republican.
- “He cares about what he’s doing. He’s very well prepared. He has the right priorities in terms of character and virtues and value and belief in the Constitution,” Racicot said in an interview with MS NOW. “It’s not even a close call for me to stand in Sam’s corner.”
- Yet the public embrace from Racicot could go toward helping the kind of crossover appeal Forstag likely needs to do what no Montana Democrat has been able to do since the 1990s: win a U.S. House seat in the state.
- Since then, [Forstag’s] built an unusual profile in a state where the national Democratic brand has proved corrosive. He is one of only a handful of congressional Democrats endorsed by both progressive Sen. Bernie Sanders and the centrist Blue Dog political outfit. Racicot’s support on top of that offers some Bush Republican-era nostalgia for voters as Forstag tries to cut into the state’s rightward drift.
- “We’re in a hole that both parties have been digging for us,” Forstag said, urging support for a kind of Democrat “that could actually improve your life, and is actually going to prioritize doing so, because I know what it’s like on a day-to-day basis.”
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