Sam Forstag // National Federation of Federal Employees
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Transgender people are facing a constant barrage of anti-transgender ads from Republicans this election cycle. Meanwhile, dozens of Democratic candidates have determined that the best way to answer them is to throw transgender people under the bus. Marcy Kaptur in Ohio ran an ad touting her vote to keep “transgender ideology” out of schools, and in Iowa, Josh Turek declared he would support a federal funding ban on gender-affirming care. The argument made by those at Searchlight, one of the major anti-trans Democratic organizations, is that this is necessary, that refusing to throw transgender people under the bus will cost you an election. Now, Democratic candidate Sam Forstag in Montana’s 1st Congressional District is bucking that trend. In a debate with his opponent, vehemently anti-transgender talk radio host Aaron Flint, he was asked directly about transgender rights, and he answered that the government “has no business” in these decisions, and that voters should “keep politics the heck out of it.”
“Aaron, the U.S. Supreme Court has said that discrimination against transgender people is discrimination based on sex in the workplace, but it has not definitively established transgender status as a protected class under the 14th Amendment. Do you consider gender identity a protective classification under the 14th Amendment and why?” asked NonStop Local anchor Bradley Warren, to which Aaron Flint responded with an answer about not “touching children” and “chopping off body parts.”
Then, it came time for Forstag’s answer, a moment that has seen other Dems take anti-transgender stances. Forstag, however, did not take that approach, and instead embraced keeping the government out of transgender people’s lives, giving a very Montana-aware political answer that did not throw transgender people under the bus:
“Well, I’ll tell you, lies and anger. They don’t solve these problems. To your question, Bradley. Everybody in Montana deserves to live the life with dignity that is protected in our state Constitution in Article 2. That is what I will fight for as your next congressperson… Government has no business sticking its nose into our personal lives, whether that’s a gun safe, whether that’s a doctor’s office. I don’t want a politician anywhere near it. So, well, let’s leave sports to the leagues that actually run them. Let’s let people live their lives with dignity and make their own private personal decisions, and let’s keep politics the heck out of it. Because what I see with that kind of anger and rhetoric is a lot of singing and dancing, and they’re singing and dancing while they pick our pockets. I won’t stand for that,” Forstag responded.
The exchange continued, with Flint saying that Forstag wanted to “create special rights for men who think they are women,” to which Forstag responded by pointing out how Flint’s attacks were just meant to distract voters from Flint’s support of data centers and AI companies, stating, “Yeah, there was not a lick of truth to anything that Aaron just said. What I want to do is actually make sure that parents are able to make decisions for their own kids, that patients are able to make their own private personal decisions. Because parents know what’s best for their kids. The sports leagues know how to best run those leagues. And this fear-mongering from Aaron is to distract from the fact that he does not have any solutions to make working people’s lives better because Aaron’s not going to be working to make our lives better. Aaron’s going to be working to, well, serve those AI companies.”
See the full exchange here (Timestamp at 49 minutes):
Forstag’s answers are notable. There is perhaps no more competitive race in the country than Montana’s 1st Congressional District. It is a district Trump took by 11 points in 2024 and a district that Democrats have attempted to pick up twice before, only to come up short. Forstag’s candidacy, though, is seen as strong, with the Cook Political Report moving the race from Likely Republican to Lean Republican in late September and public polls showing a dead heat. His history as a smokejumper putting out wildfires is particularly salient during a year that has seen extensive smoke and fires in the Pacific Northwest. And despite running in a competitive district, Forstag has done little to downplay or hide his progressive roots, even going so far as to campaign alongside Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in Missoula, Montana, during his primary. Even with this competitiveness, he refused to throw transgender people under the bus.
Representative Zooey Zephyr, a transgender state legislator that lives in Forstag’s district, commended his answer on bluesky, stating “Let’s go, Sam Forstag! That’s how you stand up for trans people on the national stage. If congressional candidates in western Montana—one of the most competitive House races in the entire country—can stand up for trans folks in every aspect of our lives, democrats everywhere should take note.”
Erin In The Morning is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a subscriber.
Editor’s note: Erin Reed, the writer of this story, lives in Montana’s first congressional district and is happily married to Representative Zooey Zephyr.
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