Last night, I joined Sam Forstag at a rally in Missoula, Montana.
In Montana, understandably, there’s a lot of suspicion around a city girl. But it’s important for us to know that a lot of that is intended to divide us.
Because what big money doesn't want us to realize is that our struggles are far more common than our landscapes are different.
Before the rally kicked off, I asked Sam, “What are some of the issues that are especially resonant in this community?” And Sam was talking to me about housing.
He went on to tell me that Montana is the hardest hit and worst housing market in America. I was shocked to hear that, as a New Yorker.
He said, “When you look at the average cost of housing pegged to the average salary here, it’s impossible.”
What the folks dumping tons of money into congressional races like Sam’s don’t want us to see, is that the same forces that pushed my family out of New York City are the same forces pushing families out of Montana.
Our fight is far more united than people understand.
It’s really not even about blue, or red, or any of that. This is about people who are accountable to everyday, working families — who don’t take big money, but take your voice, and your input, and put that in the halls of power.
Sam has spent his life protecting Montana, and believes the people deserve a government that protects them, too.
Sam is a smokejumper. As it turns out, it is one of the most dangerous jobs there is: smokejumpers parachute out of small planes into wildfires that other firefighters can't reach, and work for days to keep the fire from reaching the next town.
That means something: when something is burning, Sam runs toward that fire. That’s who he is. That's the kind of person we have the opportunity to send to Congress.
Sam knows what it's like to have your future and your life shaped by money, or by not having enough of it. After college, Sam dreamed of going to law school. But he looked at his student loan debt, and realized that he couldn't afford it.
That’s the same story I experienced. I wanted to go to medical school, but my dad had passed away, my mom was a single mom, and I knew my family couldn’t afford for me to spend years out of the workforce.
This is what it means to be a working person, not only in Montana, but everywhere. And this is about all of us, together.
The question before us isn't whether we should send another politician to Washington. It's whether we send someone who will fight.
A working person who understands real life, who doesn’t need to have it explained to them, but has actually had to make the dollars and cents work at the end of the month.
It is that proximity that gives us the urgency to change things, not “one day,” but now. And Sam Forstag has been running toward that his whole life.
Sam is asking for the chance to take that fight to Washington. And I think he should have it.
Sam is going to run towards the fire in D.C. the same way he has run towards the fire at home. But he cannot do it alone.
We’re fighting for our kids, we’re fighting for our houses, we’re fighting for our water, we’re fighting to have a government that belongs to us now.
And we do that by electing Sam Forstag to Congress.
Whether or not you can give today, thank you for standing with us.
In solidarity,
Alexandria
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