Republican businessman Greg Gianforte won Montana’s sole House district in a special election Thursday, keeping a seat in Republican hands despite facing assault charges for allegedly attacking a reporter who’d asked him about the GOP’s health-care bill. With 83 percent of the vote counted, Gianforte led Quist 51 percent to 44 percent, according to preliminary returns. “Your voices were definitely heard in this election,” he told supporters at his election party in Missoula. After Gianforte told Jacobs to direct the question to his spokesman, there was the sound of an altercation, and a screaming candidate. In the first months of the race, Quist raised just $900,000 and appeared to be written off by Washington Democrats.

Source: Washington Post May 25, 2017 23:01 UTC