Montana Democrat quietly erases Sanders and AOC from campaign site ahead of midterms

WASHINGTON, DC: Montana's Democratic congressional nominee, Sam Forstag, has quietly removed Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's from his campaign website's endorsements page, despite their presence within the site's coding, according to the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) and Breitbart News.

The NRCC revealed the changes in a Sept 21 post, which pointed to the removal of a "National Leaders" section from Forstag's website, which previously included Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez, and five other congressional Democrats, that was made publicly viewable. Breitbart shared the same information one day later.

Endorsements he continues to tout privately

Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez both endorsed Forstag ahead of the June 2 Democratic primary, and Ocasio-Cortez campaigned with him at a Missoula rally in the final days of the race.

A September 7 fundraising email from Forstag's campaign continued to highlight the endorsements, saying Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez backed him because they viewed him as a "progressive brawler."

An analysis of the page's source code reportedly found that the removed section remained embedded in the website and was tagged to remain hidden across desktop, tablet and mobile versions. This would keep the content invisible to visitors without deleting it from the underlying page code.

The claim is based on a comparison of two archived versions of the page: one from June 9 that showed Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez, Reps. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., Jamie Raskin, D-Md., Chris Deluzio, D-Pa., Robert Garcia, D-Calif., and Lateefah Simon, D-Calif., under the "National Leaders" heading, and another from August 28 that no longer displayed the section.

Forstag and Flint face off for Montana's open House seat

NRCC spokesman Christian Martinez said Forstag can scrub the endorsements from his website, but "he cannot bleach them out of his political DNA."

Forstag, a former wildland firefighter and union leader, is running for Montana's open 1st Congressional District against Aaron Flint, a conservative talk-radio host whom President Donald Trump and Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Mont., both endorsed after Zinke announced in March that he would not seek reelection, citing health issues.

Forstag's apparent efforts to downplay his progressive endorsements in a competitive, Republican-leaning district are indicative of a broader trend unfolding across the country, as Democratic candidates in swing and red districts attempt to appeal to moderate and unaffiliated voters while distancing themselves from some of the more progressive elements of the party's national platform.

The trend also reflects efforts by some Democrats in the heartland to embrace progressive positions associated with President Trump's opponents while seeking to avoid a direct confrontation with the president himself.