Sam was raised by a mom who picked up extra nursing shifts and a dad who became a public school teacher, and they made just enough to get by. That childhood taught Sam the value of hard work. It also taught him just how hard it can be for working people to get by in an economy that too often doesn’t work for them.

After working his way through school at the University of Montana, he went to work for the Forest Service, where he climbed the ranks to become a smokejumper – a firefighter who parachutes into remote areas to stop fires before they grow.

Between fire seasons, Sam never stopped showing up for Montanans, working as an organizer across Montana and an advocate at the state legislature, where he fought for public education, libraries, healthcare and constitutional freedoms. When Elon Musk tried to gut the Forest Service and public land agencies, Ryan Zinke didn’t stand up for Montanans — but Sam did. As Vice President of his union’s local, Sam organized against Musk’s cuts and rallied Montanans around the real-life impacts of Congress’ inaction.

Year after year, Montanans keep seeing the cost of their groceries, housing, healthcare and childcare go up. Sam’s running for Congress because he knows it shouldn’t be this hard to afford the basics in Montana. It’s time working families in Montana had one of their own fighting for them in Congress.