Montana's open congressional races — created when Rep. Ryan Zinke and Sen. Steve Daines both announced in March they would not seek reelection — put public lands front and center during a flurry of debates last week, with Democratic and Independent candidates pressing their Republican opponents to go beyond campaign-trail rhetoric.

What this means for you
Montana:Both of Montana's federal delegation seats are open for the first time in years, making this election cycle unusually consequential for public-lands policy statewide. With 84 percent of Montanans on record opposing land sales or transfers, per a UM poll, the issue carries real electoral weight across the state's ranching, recreation, and conservation communities.
Gallatin County:Two of the highlighted debates took place in Bozeman, and Forstag's pointed public-lands critique was delivered there — putting Gallatin County voters at the center of the debate-week coverage.
Missoula:The Oct. 13 Flint-Forstag debate was hosted by NonStop Local in Missoula, making it a focal point for western Montana voters following the First Congressional District race.
Watch next:Watch for additional CD-1 and Senate debates before Election Day 2026; no specific future debate dates were confirmed in source material.

Aaron Flint, the Trump-endorsed Republican running for Montana's First Congressional District seat, twice pledged during debates to "keep public lands in public hands." But Democrat Sam Forstag, a Forest Service smokejumper, wasn't buying it.

"'Public lands in public hands' — that's the same thing we hear from every politician," Forstag said during a Friday debate in Bozeman. "It means nothing. We need action."

The two faced off at a debate hosted by NonStop Local in Missoula on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026, and again in Bozeman on Friday. Forstag has positioned himself as an unambiguous defender of federal land protections. Public Domain, a Substack-based investigative outlet covering public lands, reported that Flint has a documented history of supporting transfers of federal lands to state control — a stance that puts him to the right of many Montana voters on the issue.

An April 2026 poll commissioned by the University of Montana found that 84 percent of Montanans support banning the sale or transfer of public lands. And at its biennial platform convention in June, the Montana Republican Party adopted platform language that, according to Public Domain's reporting, maintained support for land transfers and left open the possibility of selling federal lands outside of national parks and wilderness designations.

On the Senate side, Independent candidate Seth Bodnar used a Sunday debate in Bozeman to draw a hard line. "We need a U.S. senator who's going to stand up and fight like hell to defend our public lands, not be the servant of Mike Lee down in Utah, who's going to do everything he can within the Republican Party to sell off our public lands," Bodnar said. He added: "It's easy to give lip-service talking about public lands. It's hard to stand up and actually fight for them."

Public lands have been a recurring fault line in Montana federal races. Both Zinke and Daines earned broad credit — including from conservation groups — for helping block a proposal by Utah Sen. Mike Lee and allied Republicans that would have transferred or sold as many as 3.2 million acres of federal land in the American West. Their departures from their respective seats leave open the question of whether their successors will hold the same line.

The source material for this article comes from Public Domain, a Substack-based investigative outlet. The406.news has not independently verified every debate quote or each campaign finance or polling figure cited; readers should treat the framing — particularly characterizations of Republican intent — as Public Domain's editorial interpretation. The University of Montana polling figure (84 percent opposing sale or transfer) is attributed to an April 2026 UM-commissioned poll; the406.news has not independently confirmed the methodology.