District: MT-01
Cook Political Ranking: Likely R
Performance Voter Index: R+5
Sam Forstag is a smokejumper running for Congress to try to flip Montana’s 1st congressional district. Forstag was raised by a single mother who works as a nurse, and who often pulled extra shifts to provide for his family. After high school, Forstag attended the University of Montana. There he worked two or three jobs at a time to pay the bills. For the past eight years, Forstag worked as a wildland firefighter with the US Forest Service, including four years as a smokejumper–a firefighter who parachutes into remote areas to catch wildfires before they grow. Forstag has also served as a leader in his union, and he has spent the past decade organizing and advocating across Montana on behalf of public education, libraries, housing, and civil liberties. In April 2025, Hundreds of Forstag’s coworkers in Montana were fired with no warning and no cause as part of the DOGE cuts. Alongside his fellow union members, Forstag organized and fought back, and the effort successfully saved hundreds of working Montanans’ jobs. Following this experience, Forstag decided to run for office because “after seeing those in power come after working Montanans, and how little our current representative did to help them, I decided that if he [Rep. Zinke] was coming for my coworkers’ jobs, I would take his.”

Montana’s 1st Congressional District is based in the western part of the state and includes the cities of Missoula, Bozeman, Kalispell. Ahead of the 2022 race, this district was created. Since 1993, Montana only had one elected at-large congressional disrtict. Following the release of the 2020 United States census results, Montana was once again split into two congressional districts.This district is currently held by GOP Rep. Ryan Zinke who is retiring after cycle, leaving this seat open. In 2024, the race for MT-01 saw very little in outside spending, with Democratic candidate Monica Tranel raising $6 million and Rep. Zinke (R) raising $9.9 million. In 2026, Sam Forstag is running for this open seat, and the DCCC has included him in its Red to Blue Program. In November he will face off against Republican Challenger and Army veteran Aaron Flint. V4P PAC has not yet endorsed in this race.