A union leader and firefighter named Sam Forstag is the projected winner of a Democratic primary in Montana.

Forstag defeated three other Democrats — Ryan Busse, Russell Cleveland and Matt Rains — likely thanks in part to endorsements from leading progressives Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.).

Forstag will face the winner of the Republican primary in a November contest for the seat being vacated by Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-Mont.), whose retirement has given Democrats hope of flipping the district.

The 31-year-old Forstag worked as a smokejumper — a firefighter who parachutes into remote areas to fight wildfires — before entering politics. He has said billionaire Elon Musk’s cuts to the U.S. Forest Service eliminated a quarter of its employees in Montana and prodded him into seeking public office.

“Most of the people that they fired were the lowest-pay workers in our agency, the people making less than $20 an hour swinging tools and conducting the science to keep our roads and trails clear and our air and water safe,” Forstag said at a Missoula rally last week with Ocasio-Cortez.

“When I reached out to our supposed representative, Ryan Zinke, time and time again, I got crickets,” Forstag said. “So after a year of fighting those cuts with my union, while fighting wildfires as a smokejumper, I decided that if they’re going to come after my co-workers and my union members’ jobs, I’m going to come take his.”

At the event in Missoula, Ocasio-Cortez praised Forstag’s heroism, which earned him a photo shoot in Esquire and speculation he could be progressives’ next blue-collar sensation.

“When something is burning in this state, Sam runs towards the fire, that’s the kind of person he is, and that’s the kind of person we have the opportunity to send to Congress,” she said.

Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders met Forstag when he spoke at their “Fighting Oligarchy Tour” on its swing through Montana last year, before he’d announced his candidacy for the House.“He was an impressive guy, and I think that rally had some impact on his decision-making, and he is a working-class guy who I think is prepared to stand up to big money, and is the kind of guy that we need in the house now,” Sanders told HuffPost.

Polling last month suggested most Montanans hadn’t heard of Forstag and that Busse, a gun control advocate who ran for governor of Montana in 2024, had a lead in the race. Busse suggested Forstag’s support from outside the state wouldn’t help him.

“The voters we need to win in November live in places like Manhattan, MT, and feel really betrayed by national politicians that fly in from places like Manhattan, NY. I’ll stick with the MT folks,” Busse said in a statement last week to the Montana Free Press.

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