Democratic congressional candidate Sam Forstag very clearly wants Montanans to think that he’s just a regular guy cut from the same cloth as them. His campaign website has pictures of mountains. He’s described as a “smokejumper.” He wears Carhartt.
However, his career as a liberal lobbyist – which is much more extensive than his smokejumping stints – was spent working for far-left organizations and fighting for radical policies deeply unpopular with most Montanans.
After Sam moved to Montana from Portland, he registered as a lobbyist for the ACLU and Planned Parenthood, among other progressive organizations. The list of popular, conservative, common-sense bills he lobbied against in the Montana Legislature is quite extensive.
Sam Forstag fought against prohibiting minors from receiving transgender mutilation surgeries, against legislation to remove sexually explicit material and drag queen shows from public schools and libraries, against requiring local law enforcement to cooperate with federal immigration authorities, and finally, against prohibiting biological men from competing in women’s sports.
Furthermore, Forstag has received the personal endorsements of socialists Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders. In fact, both flew all the way out to Missoula to campaign for him. And it’s no wonder: Sam is campaigning for universal (i.e. taxpayer-funded) healthcare and housing.
We don’t need to elect a radical California liberal pretending to be a regular, salt-of-the-earth Montanan. Put simply: Sam Forstag does not share our Montana values. He is a far-left Portland liberal through and through, and no amount of Carhartt can cover that up.
Keith Regier
Kalispell