Contact: Aly Ferguson
aly@newpolitics.org; 480-363-6465
The wildland firefighter and union leader wins a Western Montana seat that Trump carried by 11 points.
WASHINGTON D.C. (November 4, 2026) — New Politics endorsed candidate Sam Forstag has won Montana's 1st Congressional District, flipping the open seat to Democrats. A smokejumper and union leader, Forstag was a member of the DCCC’s Red to Blue program and won even after President Trump rallied against him in the race’s final weeks.
Emily Cherniack, Founder and Executive Director of New Politics, released the following statement:
“Sam Forstag has spent his career running toward danger to keep communities safe. And when the people who protect public lands came under attack, he stood up for them too, organizing his fellow federal workers to fight back. That’s servant leadership in its purest form, and it’s what Montanans voted for tonight. New Politics backed Sam because his whole career has been about showing up when it counts, and Western Montana just sent him to Washington to keep doing it on a bigger stage.”
New Politics is an organization that revitalizes American democracy by recruiting, developing, and electing leaders across the ideological and political spectrum who have committed their lives to serving their communities and our country, either through military service, national service organizations like AmeriCorps or the Peace Corps, or by demonstrating strong service-based leadership in their community. New Politics' support includes strategic advising and training in all aspects of a candidate's campaign, such as fundraising, communications, organizing, hiring, and team building. New Politics has raised over $40 million to support over 475 candidates, successfully electing more than 200 of them to office, from Congress to School Board. Learn more at newpolitics.org.
