MT-01: U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez headlines rally to turn out Dems for Sam Forstag ahead of primary

MISSOULA – Last year progressive politicians U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont stopped in Missoula as part of their “Fighting Oligarchy” tour. That rally drew a large crowd to the Adams Center at the University of Montana, and Ocasio-Cortez was introduced by a local Missoula smokejumper.

On Thursday, the roles were reversed as Ocasio-Cortez introduced Sam Forstag to a crowd of around 800 at the historic Wilma Theatre, at a rally supporting him as a Democratic candidate for the state’s western house district.

“We had that rally of 7,500 people, and there was a young man that introduced me. He was a union man, a wildland firefighter, the son of a public school teacher, and that man’s name was Sam Forstag,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “Then, we were just a couple of folks getting together, talking about the issues of the day, but as it turns out, the momentum and the faith of coming together and organizing and refusing to give up created a window, and Sam decided to raise his hand and put his hat in the ring to run for Congress.”

Forstag said his motivation for running came last February, when he watched more than 300 colleagues in U.S. Forest Service positions lose their jobs in the first weeks of the second Trump Administration, and he had sought help and answers from “supposed Representative Ryan Zinke,” the district’s current congressman, but heard nothing.



https://dailymontanan.com/2026/05/29/u-s-rep-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-headlines-rally-to-turn-out-dems-for-sam-forstag-ahead-of-primary/