Platner Part 2? ‘Firejumper’ Running for Seat That Could Determine Who Wins House Actually Lobbyist Defending Transing Kids, Drag Shows in Libraries

When Graham Platner’s faux blue-collar “oysterman” image was despoiled by America discovering he was actually some boarding school failson maintained by his wealthy family — and when that was the most outrageous thing about the Democratic senatorial candidate — it felt almost like the Democrats were incapable of never learning what precisely a blue-collar American is.

Now, in Sam Forstag, it appears that the Democrats will apparently never learn from never learning, either.

Forstag, to be fair, has not been chased off the campaign trail by a Nazi tattoo or rape allegations. He is, however, billed as “a smokejumper and union leader,” according to a CBS News report announcing his win in Montana’s 1st Congressional District Democratic primary last month. While the district is usually Republican, incumbent Rep. Ryan Zinke is retiring, meaning without an incumbent the race will be tighter than usual.

Forstag also comes bearing endorsements from the usual upper-class socialist slummers, independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York.

“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,” AOC said at a campaign rally.

That’s a good line. It sounds a lot better than “when a state is a minor and needs transgender surgery, Sam runs to the lobbying office to make sure that happens.” Which, funnily enough, is actually what the candidate in a competitive race that could determine who controls the House really did to get Democrats’ attention, so much as his career actually matters to voters.

Despite being universally branded a “firefighter” by the media and cosplaying as a normie on cable news, Forstag “previously worked as a registered lobbyist opposing state-level bills that would have restricted drag performances in public schools and libraries, banned gender-transition procedures for minors and cracked down on sanctuary policies,” Fox News reported Wednesday.

According to the report, Forstag was a registered lobbyist between 2021 and 2023 for the American Civil Liberties Union, Planned Parenthood, and the Montana Library Association, according to public records.

He was also registered to lobby for the City of Missoula, one of the blue dots in a mostly red state. And his on-the-record opinions, such as they were captured in his capacity as a lobbyist, were telling.

For instance, when it came to banning transgender procedures on minors, he testified before the Montana State Senate that lawmakers should “leave personal and medical decisions to families and their chosen health care providers.”

As it regards drag performances in libraries and public schools, usually for children: “This bill is the latest of a series that I expect you’ll see that are intended to stir up fear and distrust of our fellow citizens.”

But smokejumper! Union leader!

“While representing the ACLU of Montana, Forstag was tied to opposition against HB 112, which required student athletes to compete based on biological sex, and SB 169, a measure to increase scrutiny around voter ID protocols,” Fox News reported.

He fights fires, though! And lobbies on the side, seriously. It’s like a hobby of his!

“Between fire seasons, I fought for working people in a state capitol that too often ignores us,” Forstag told Fox News.

“Instead of accepting a system where the extremes and the rich have the loudest voice, I worked my tail off to defend Montanans’ constitutional rights and freedoms and fight for policies that actually improve our lives.”

“I believe the government’s got no place getting involved in peoples’ private, personal decisions,” he continued. “Politicians have no place coming for our guns, and no place inserting themselves into medical decisions that should be up to patients, parents, and doctors.”

Sure. New possible campaign slogans:

• “Forstag: Don’t Let People Die in Fires, Kill Them in the Womb First!”
• “Forstag: Why Let Fire Ruin Your Child’s Life When We Can Let Mental Health Transgender Ideologues Do It For Them?”
• “Forstag: Fire in Your Home — No! Firearms in Your Home — Sure, I Guess! Fire Island in Your Home — Heck, Yes, and I Plan to Force It in There!”

This information looks even worse when put alongside clips of him playing up the angle that he only cares about making government work for the average person:

Oof https://t.co/pv7N4ZmEj3 pic.twitter.com/Iuam0V5Z9p

— Alex Pfeiffer (@AlexPfeiffer) July 15, 2026

Look, I don’t particularly care whether my firefighters are liberal or conservative or fascist anarchists or whatever… when they’re firefighting. When they’re seeking to represent me or others, that becomes quite a bit more pertinent, especially when 1) the main thing most people know about the guy is that he’s a “Montana firefighter” and 2) most of the policies he supported in his time in public life are diametrically opposed to the populist voter base he’s courting.

And by the way, the idea that you stumble into a lobbyist job because you’ve got some free time on your hands in the wildfire off-season is ludicrous, especially for heavy hitters like the ACLU and Planned Parenthood. It’s a ludicrous idea that multiple outlets have bought nonetheless, even if they acknowledge that the guy has ambitions.

For instance, take this empurpled prose from Esquire, which started its profile of Forstag and his run with the origin story of how he became a candidate:

Two months before, Forstag had driven his 1984 Toyota van, with its temperamental spark plugs and homemade bed, to a lake tucked into a valley outside town. Underneath blazing-gold larch trees that would soon drop their needles, he spent the night alone, thinking, writing. Crying.

Friends, colleagues, and local political players had been begging him to run for the seat of Montana’s First Congressional District. It was a heavy ask. He wasn’t a politician. He was a smokejumper, the most elite level of wildland firefighter. It was a seasonal job that paid just twenty dollars an hour—and it was dangerous. He had to parachute from planes into forests across the western U.S. to extinguish wildfires. He pictured himself jumping until his body gave out.

The journey to this point had been winding, his life hard-won. He’d had a poor childhood in Oregon. Worked multiple jobs to get himself through the University of Montana. Became a wildland firefighter to help pay for law school. Then he fell in love with smokejumping and became a union leader. As his statewide profile grew, bolstered by public appearances in which he spoke out against the Trump administration’s cuts to public lands and their workers, he wondered whether he really should run for office. Could he make a bigger difference by shaping law rather than learning to practice it?

“It was a heavy ask” for a guy who was making slightly above minimum wage as a smoke jumper: “Would you like to put your political science and philosophy degrees from the University of Montana, where you were student body president, to use making Nancy Pelosi-type money, or would you like to keep on earning one solitary Andrew Jackson per hour doing dangerous, thankless work?” Tricky question, that.

Or — and hear me out — perhaps there’s a third option here that we hadn’t considered: Esquire was willing to be easily duped by a guy who knew exactly what he wanted (political power), knew exactly who didn’t get it in this part of the world (theater-kid student-body strivers with poli sci and philosophy degrees), also knew who did (salt-of-the-earth types), and went about getting it.

For instance, the Esquire piece only mentions his lobbying work in passing, without using the word lobbyist, while pretty much admitting what his goals were: “Forstag spent his offseasons working for nonprofits like the ACLU, Montana Library Association, and Montana Innocence Project. He’d already had his eyes on a career in civil liberties and social justice.” It mentions this pretty far down in the piece, too — along with the fact that his stint as a “union leader” was with the powerful and left-leaning National Federation of Federal Employees, where he’s vice president of the local chapter.

But no, he’s just some born fireman who was reduced to tears by the specter of running for public office. And I’m the ghost of Jimmy Hoffa.

His service to his community in a dangerous job, while admirable, is infinitesimally as relevant in the role that he’s seeking as his political views and how he’s represented them for a living. Those views are a mishmash of dangerous, far-left piffle that most Americans, Democrat or Republican, have rejected.

This isn’t just a matter of private matters but instead of woke values being pushed into the public domain and affecting others. It doesn’t matter whether you hide this poison behind being an “oysterman” or a “firefighter.” These are left-wing caricatures of masculinity designed to act as Trojan horses for a deadly belief system.

Poison is still poisonous, and Democrats still don’t have a clue what passes as working class in America in 2026.

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