Gianforte wins U.S. House seat

After an embattled 24 hours, millions of dollars of his own money poured into his campaign and thousands of miles traversing the state, Greg Gianforte arose victorious Thursday in Montana’s special election for the U.S. House of Representatives.

He also apologized for an election eve incident in which he is charged with misdemeanor assault of a news reporter, but the incident didn’t seem to hurt him.

With 357,440 votes counted at press time, the Republican led 51 to 44 percent over Democrat Rob Quist with 181,137 votes compared to Quist’s 155,610 in an election to replace Ryan Zinke, who was selected as President Donald Trump's interior secretary earlier this year. Libertarian Mark Wicks had 6 percent of the vote with 20,693 votes.

The Republican appeared for the first time since Wednesday night from behind a sparkling blue curtain with his wife, Susan, and declared the win a victory for coal, timber, seniors, farmers and ranchers, public lands, the Second Amendment and the state of Monana.

“Tonight we won a victory for all Montanans,” he said to thunderous applause.

Gianforte took the stage about 10 minutes before 11 p.m. Thursday at the Hilton Garden Inn, before a few hundred faithful who drank and ate while watching the votes roll in after the polls closed at 8 p.m. 

In his victory speech, Gianforte vowed to keep his campaign promises: bringing accountability to Washington D.C., supporting term limits and banning members of Congress from becoming lobbyists. He said when people go to Washington, they “seem to drink the water and slither into the swamp,” before he let out a catch-phrase recently coined by President Donald Trump.

“I promise to be open and accessible and based on your input I’ll be your strong voice in D.C.,” he said. 

Gianforte had not been seen in public since Wednesday, when he was charged with a misdemeanor for allegedly assaulting Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs. Earlier in the day, the Gallatin County Sheriff’s Office addressed the charges and said it considers the investigation closed, but the case still open.

Gianforte addressed the incident in his speech, apologizing to Jacobs.

“I took an action that I can’t take back and I’m not proud of what happened. I should not have responded in the way that I did, and for that I’m sorry,” he said. (“You’re forgiven!” someone yelled from the crowd.) “I should not have treated that reporter that way, and I’m sorry Ben Jacobs.”

Quist took the stage at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Missoula – Edgewater in Missoula shortly after 11 p.m. to tell supporters he had just called Gianforte and had congratulated him on his victory.

“This has been such a great honor for me,” he said, adding later that he knew Montanans would hold Gianforte accountable for his votes in Washington.

“One thing for sure, your voices were heard in this election,” he said.

Quist said he saw great enthusiasm across the state during the campaign.

“Don’t be discouraged, be determined,” he said of his loss.

“I will continue to be involved,” he said.

Claudia Narcisco of Missoula did not take his defeat well.

“He ran a great campaign,” she said, adding she feared Gianforte has a tendency toward violent behavior.

Margaret Scott of Missoula said she was heartbroken over the defeat.

“I know Rob Quist is a person of integrity and Gianforte has demonstrated he is not,” she said.

Jeremy Johnson, an associate professor of political science at Carroll College, said Quist underperformed in the swing counties of Yellowstone and Cascade. 

“As soon as the absentee votes were reported from Yellowstone at 8 p.m. and Quist was behind by 20, the outcome was clear,” Johnson said. “A bright spot for Quist was Gallatin County and he did well in Silver Bow, Lewis and Clark, and Missoula, although with the University out of session it appears that Missoula's numbers were not as strong as we might anticipate.”

Johnson said Gianforte ran strong in rural counties where Republicans have traditionally performed well. 

“Quist was unable to much move the needle despite having a background that Democrats hoped might appeal outside of traditional Democratic strongholds,” he said. 

Montana GOP Chair Jeff Essmann earlier in the night said he was confident the incident would be “negligible” to voters. He said they were more interested in electing a congressman who could work with the president to achieve the goals set in motion with Trump’s surprise victory in November.

“Montana sent a strong message tonight that we want a congressman who will work with President Trump to make America and Montana great again,” Gianforte said, with the crowd finishing his line.

It’s not known how the incident affected the election as many Montanans already had voted through absentee ballots with the state reporting late Wednesday that 73 percent, or 259,558 of 357,596, of absentee ballots have been returned.

Going into Thursday, some were viewing the election, the most expensive House race in state history, as a measure for how President Donald Trump is doing since he took office in January. 

The election was rife with other controversy as well.

Quist stumbled over questions about his financial history. In March, the Associated Press reported the state filed three tax liens to collect about $15,000 in back taxes against him, which he blamed on health problems. The liens were issued in 2015 and cover the 2007, 2011 and 2012 tax years. He settled the debt with the Department of Revenue in May 2016.

A May 5 New York Times story reported Gianforte said in a private conversation that he supported repealing the Affordable Care Act, while earlier in the day he said he needed to know more about the repeal bill before endorsing it.

Wicks scored points with viewers when when he compared Gianforte to a luxury car, Quist as a utility truck with a good sound system but with a small engine and himself as the “work truck” that will get folks out of trouble at a debate.