COLUMBIA FALLS — While Vice President JD Vance was speaking in support of Republican candidates in Belgrade on Monday, western district House Democratic candidate Sam Forstag made multiple stops in the Flathead.
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Forstag took a tour of SmartLam’s headquarters in Columbia Falls. The company specializes in manufacturing mass timber products that are shipped all over the country.
“These are the sort of critical industries that our representatives should actually be fighting to protect. We’ve not actually seen that sort of fight on our behalf from Washington, D.C., recently when we just lost another wood products facility, another sawmill, in the last year and a half in this state,” said Forstag.
Forstag's tour lands on the same day as Vance's visit to the Treasure State, about a week after President Donald Trump attended a rally in Kalispell to stump for Forstag's opponent, Aaron Flint. MTN asked for his reaction to both the president and vice president traveling to Montana to rally Republicans.
“It is disappointing but not surprising. Aaron Flint seems to think he needs political party bosses coming in here to bail him out, and he’s doing that because they’re scared. They’re scared of what happens when working people in this state actually stand together to fight for ourselves,” said Forstag.
We also asked Forstag if he has any plans to bring in national Democratic leaders to speak on his behalf during the final week of his campaign.
“We’re talking to leaders here in the state. We’ve had five town halls with some of those Republican legislators, former Republican governor who’s endorsing this campaign, as important as any particular policy that we’re fighting for and we need big policy change in this country to make sure that everybody can work one job and afford the basics, is getting back to a place where you can sit down with somebody who you don’t agree with on everything and find common ground,” said Forstag.
Forstag said he’s feeling confident about his campaign one week before Election Day.
“Feeling pretty hopeful when we see the fact that people from both political parties are coming together around real common-sense solutions and around something that is truly all too rare today. It is far too rare for a working person to make it to Congress,” said Forstag.
