THE DAILY YONDER: Political Change in Purple Montana?

This story by Emily Senkosky appeared on The Daily Yonder on November 2, 2026

In Missoula, Montana, Sam Forstag – the Democrat valiantly swinging for the recently-flipped Republican house seat – meets me in the back of a dusky coffee shop. I was surprised that his campaign manager wanted us to meet in a public space – Forstag has become a celebrity since he started his campaign. Rolling Stone, The New York Times, NPR have all covered his pursuit for congress, showcasing the plight of a David who wants to take on Goliath and reinvigorate a government by the people, for the people.

But despite his sensationalism, I wanted to interview Forstag for other reasons. Missoula is now my hometown, and I had some questions as a voter and not just a journalist.

In the current era of politics, I think many people, including myself, feel disconnected from their decision makers. I grew up in Idaho, where partisan values have become so polarized that at some point, it felt like my vote no longer fit into the picture – both because of topics I see fit to voice my opinion on and who I am as a person.

When I moved to Montana, I was surprised and perplexed to feel so many similarities and yet so many differences to Idaho. The beautiful outdoor spaces, community-driven culture, and a homegrown feel were all the same, but here, people from differing political camps still seemed to be able to agree to disagree while at the same table. Here, it doesn’t feel like your voice was lost to the political void. Here, you can still meet your representatives face-to-face at a bar, a food pantry, or say, a coffee shop.

Forstag is running for Missoula’s 1st Congressional District, which makes up the western quarter of the state, including the Rocky Mountains and population centers like Missoula, Kalispell, and Bozeman, among others. The 2nd District covers the other three-fourths of the state, hosting the city of Billings and stretching into the Great Plains of Eastern Montana.

It seems to me that shared space is what Forstag is trying to tap into. His campaign has focused on his experience as a blue-collar federal worker, a smokejumper that understands the value of public lands, and a unionizer who knows how to stand up for people with their boots on the ground and their hands in the dirt. Those are the values that run deep in Montana, and because of them, there is fertile common ground across the political divide.

I wasn’t the most important journalist he had talked to, but he showed up, and spoke earnestly about his plans to represent Montanans.

Purple Bones
Montana has a historical reputation for being a purple state. The state is nearly 600 miles from East to West, making for an approximate 10-hour drive all the way across. Although there are main hubs like Missoula, Bozeman, and Helena, much of the state’s geography is dotted with rural towns that have a flavor all their own. That has led to a “Live and Let Live” attitude among many  Montanans—because, depending on where you are in Big Sky Country, your surroundings and lifeways could be very different from the next town over.

As a result, the state’s political history has had a mixed bag of evolutions, starting with the constitution. Montana’s constitution is arguably one of the most progressive in the country. In it, there are things like a citizen’s right to a “clean and healthful” environment and a mandate to incorporate the culture and history of the state’s Native American tribes into state education. In 2024, Montana voters also amended the constitution to provide a right to abortion. On the other hand,  the Constitution’s right of “individual privacy as an essential to the well-being of a free society” has also made some traditional principles foundational in the state; including economic freedom, individual liberty, and private property rights. Today, amongst judicial precedent and amendments, you will find a mosaic of conservative beliefs amongst forward-thinking policies.

Thanks to this history, Forstag believes that, when you peel back the layers, Montanans care about the same things, even if for different reasons. What is missing, he says, is the ability for real folks to connect those values in a meaningful way to the systems that govern them. He relates to this personally through his time as a smokejumper. Although the wildfire crisis has only grown in recent years, DOGE’s cuts to the Forest Service dismantled the agency’s ability to effectively manage the natural disaster.

“I would like to see an actual good faith effort for government efficiency,” Forstag said. “Invest to fix the processes. Invest to make sure that we have enough people to make those processes work. And then, invest in the low dollar places that would save us hundreds of millions on the back end.”

Across his platform, Forstag makes the case that governmental success should be measured by whether it helps people sustain their livelihoods and communities. His campaign language amplifies that ethos through topics like public lands, agriculture, health care, and education.

Public lands are central to Montana’s economy, culture, and way of life. Nearly one-third of the state consists of federal and state-owned public land, generating roughly $7.1 billion in annual consumer spending and supporting about 71,000 jobs across conservation, ranching, logging, and recreation.

To reinvigorate this foundation, Forstag wants to rebuild and fully staff federal land agencies, invest in proactive forest management and wildfire mitigation, support responsible timber harvest, and modernize mills — all while maintaining environmental protections and public input. He argues that staffing cuts have weakened collaboration and environmental review, delaying projects and hurting both conservationists and loggers while benefiting those seeking to profit from public lands. He believes that if there was a round table for people with competing interests to meet, compromise could happen.

“I’d rather disagree with you on one issue than be bullshitting you on all of them,” Forstag said.

For farmers and ranchers, he proposes measures to curb corporate power and give smaller producers more stability, from country-of-origin labeling to greater support for local meat processing and agricultural cooperatives. He also wants Congress to approve tariffs rather than leaving farmers and ranchers exposed to policy swings. Knowing where food comes from is important in Montana, where 62% of total land area is used for agricultural production. Just seventy years ago, about 70% of the food eaten was grown in-state, but today that share is down to just 3%, which brings into question how that market shift is impacting local producers.

Two other staples in Forstag’s campaign are public health and education. For public health, he believes access is key, and wants to expand Medicare, strengthen rural hospitals, and invest in mental health care. This mirrors his stance on emergency response, promoting a government that spends earlier, keeping working people from bearing the cost of preventable crises.

“Too often when there’s a downturn or a budget shortfall, it is the public services and public servants who actually provide the most good on the ground and do the most for working people who suffer,” Forstag said.

Forstag’s education platform starts young, aiming to reduce the costs that can push Montana families out of the state or force parents to choose between work and caring for their children. He proposes universal free childcare and expanded pre-K. Across Montana, 60% of counties qualified as child care deserts, meaning that one childcare slot is available for every two to three children who actually need care. He also suggests an increase in pay for teachers and school staff, and elevating Pell Grants to make college and trade school attainable for students from less wealthy backgrounds.

Forstag is passionate about the education space, saying that one of his most meaningful moments on the campaign trail was when students at Missoula’s University of Montana said that his race for Congress was the first time they felt hope for politics.

More Seats at the Table
Through our interview, I feel that I got a better idea of what makes Forstag human behind the moxie of a gung-ho politician. As a person and congressional candidate, he seems to believe that people are more alike than our politics suggest. Forstag says that his campaign has held five times as many community events as his competitors, including town halls in rural communities where Democrats rarely campaign. In a state as geographically vast and politically complex as Montana, the willingness to show up goes a long way.

“We’re going to places Democrats don’t go,” Forstag said. “I think the thing that we need to change is we need to engage in real organizing, and a big part of that is showing up.”

He also says that organizing cannot begin and end with an election cycle. He wants to see  people hired to work in communities year-round, including within Montana reservations and rural areas, where consistent representation and access to decision-makers can make a tangible difference. By also partnering with Republican legislators to host civil discourse events, he hopes to continue to create space for people with different political affiliations to find common ground.

“We need to actually make people feel like somebody’s listening, and not just feel like it, but show it,” Forstag said. “Even under a divided government, we can and should get some legislation passed and signed.”

Whether that perspective will translate into meaningful change in Congress remains to be seen. But as a person who has felt alienated from politics in her home state, I appreciated Forstag’s effort to show up, coffee in hand, and make me feel like I was truly a part of the conversation.

Emily Senkosky is a writer and photographer based in Missoula who reports on the changing dynamics of the American West. Her stories have been published in the MIT Technology Review, High Country News, Grist, Audubon, Entrepreneur, and Business Insider, amongst others. 

This article first appeared on The Daily Yonder and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.