Montana congressional candidate Sam Forstag has quietly wiped Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), and a list of other national progressive lawmakers from the endorsement page of his campaign website after winning his primary.
An archived version of the site from June 9 shows a “National Leaders” section featuring Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez, Rep. Chris Deluzio (D-PA), Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA), and Rep. Lateefah Simon (D-CA). Sometime between June 9 and August 28, that entire section vanished. The current version of the page now jumps straight from “Former Montana Elected Officials” to “Organizations” — no national progressives in sight.
Both Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez had personally endorsed Forstag’s campaign during the primary. Ocasio-Cortez went further, appearing alongside Forstag at a rally in Missoula.
The removal hasn’t stopped Forstag from citing the endorsements when it suits him. A September 7 fundraising email from his campaign still invoked both Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez, saying they backed him because he was a “progressive brawler.”
NRCC spokesman Christian Martinez didn’t let the deletion slide. “Socialist lobbyist Sam Forstag can scrub Bernie Sanders and AOC off his website, but he cannot bleach them out of his political DNA,” Martinez told Breitbart News. “A last-minute campaign facelift won’t erase years of lobbying for far-left groups that fought to allow men to compete in women’s sports and allow sex changes to be performed on children without their parents’ permission, all while backing tax hikes that would hammer working Montana families trying to get by.”
A Lobbying Record Worth Hiding?
Forstag’s background gives Republicans plenty of material. From December 2020 to May 2021, he worked as a legislative program manager for the ACLU of Montana, where his professional profile said he handled criminal justice reform, voting rights, indigenous justice, immigrant rights, and the state budget — full-time lobbying at the state Capitol, mobilizing ACLU members, and coordinating coalitions.
From November 2021 to April 2024, he was a partner at Central House Strategies, where he said he advocated for policies benefiting “poor, working and marginalized people.” His client list included Planned Parenthood of Montana, the Montana Innocence Project, the Montana Library Association, the Montana Food Bank Network, and the Poverello Center, and he helped lead the Montana Coalition to Solve Homelessness.
The ACLU itself has pushed to reduce “the role, resources and power of police” in favor of alternative programs, and a 2020 commentary by a former ACLU policing policy adviser openly called to “defund the police.” The organization has also pushed to end cash bail and to create a pathway to citizenship for illegal aliens.
Forstag has his own record on transgender policy in Montana. In 2021 he urged residents to pressure lawmakers to vote “NO” on HB 112, which barred transgender-identifying individuals from women’s and girls’ school sports, and on HB 427, which would have blocked certain gender-transition surgeries for minors. In 2017, he shared a post opposing HB 609, a measure that would have let voters decide whether students must use bathrooms and locker rooms matching their sex as defined in the bill.
The Race Ahead
Forstag is running for Montana’s 1st Congressional District against Republican Aaron Flint, a conservative radio host and military veteran endorsed by President Donald Trump and retiring Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-MT). Flint served as an infantry platoon leader in Ramadi, Iraq, and also served in Afghanistan, the Horn of Africa, and the Arabian Peninsula before returning home to host the statewide Montana Talks radio program.
Flint told Breitbart News Saturday in March that the September 11 attacks inspired him to enlist and described his congressional run as another chance to “step up and fight for your country.” During the primary, he labeled Forstag a “Bernie bro” and “far-left lobbyist for the ACLU” who “fought to get men in women’s locker rooms.”
