Democrat Sam Forstag won election Thursday to the U.S. House of Representatives representing Montana’s 1st Congressional District, defeating Republican Aaron Flint. Forstag is a labor union leader and Forest Service smokejumper, a specialized firefighter who gets to fires by aircraft and parachute. He organized efforts opposing the job cuts at the Forest Service and other public lands agencies orchestrated by Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency. Flint is a conservative talk radio host and former aide to retiring Republican Rep. Ryan Zinke. He also spent more than 20 years in the Army National Guard and Reserves, and he served in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Associated Press declared Forstag the winner at 12:02 p.m. EST.

See more Seattle Times content on Google

The Seattle Times does not append comment threads to stories from wire services such as the Associated Press, The New York Times, The Washington Post or Bloomberg News. Rather, we focus on discussions related to local stories by our own staff.…