On Thursday morning, the Associated Press called the race for Montana’s 1st District in favor of Sam Forstag, a Democrat, union leader and federal smokejumper. He edged out conservative talk radio host Aaron Flint, who congratulated his opponent Tuesday night before the AP called the race.
Forstag’s win was one of many flipped seats in Tuesday’s history-making election. Smokejumpers are elite wildland firefighters who parachute out of airplanes into blazes.
“This win is the work of thousands of Montanans who are sick of a politics that puts working people last, and who are ready to send one of our own to Washington to make it work for us,” Forstag said in a release from the National Federation of Federal Employees, with which he previously served as vice president of the union’s Local 60.
“I promise to keep showing up, listening, and fighting for a future where every Montanan can work one good job and afford the basics, and where our wild places are protected for the Montanans who come next,” he continued.
Riva Duncan, president of the nonpartisan advocacy group Grassroots Wildland Firefighters, said Forstag’s election is significant to the whole wildland profession, though her organization did not endorse him.
She said many legislators of both parties have been supportive of important reforms — like permanent pay raises for wildland firefighters,“but having someone who's actually lived, done the job, in the culture and still struggles to make ends meet is really huge. And we really look forward to hopefully forming a very valuable partnership with Sam as he goes into office.”
His election comes in the wake of an intense wildfire season that claimed many hundreds of homes and the lives of 20 firefighters.
“He'll be able to speak about that with compassion and with his experience, and help frame, hopefully, some policies and legislation that will make a difference in … people's lives,” she said.
The National Smokejumper Association also congratulated Forstag on his win, noting that he will be the first smokejumper to serve in Congress since Washington’s Mike Kreidler in the mid-1990s.
Many issues surrounding wildfires are complex and nuanced, sometimes making it a challenge to explain them and their implications to legislators and members of the public who lack professional backgrounds in the field.
“Sam's going to be able to really educate a lot of people because he'll have time to spend on this stuff,” Duncan said.
This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Boise State Public Radio, Wyoming Public Media, Nevada Public Radio, KUNR in Nevada, KUNC in Northern Colorado, KANW in New Mexico, Colorado Public Radio and KJZZ in Arizona as well as NPR, with support from affiliate newsrooms across the region. Funding for the Mountain West News Bureau is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Eric and Wendy Schmidt.
