Republican candidate Greg Gianforte won the Montana special election to replace former Rep. Ryan Zinke late Thursday, according to the Associated Press.
The Republican earned 50.6 percent of the vote, with 82 percent of precincts reporting as of 1:00 AM. Democratic challenger Rob Quist came in a close second with 43.6 percent, according to the New York Times.
A recount is only automatically generated by Montana state rules if the race is an absolute tie, but the losing candidate has as many as five days to file for a manual recount provided that the margin of defeat doesn’t equal one-fourth of one percent of the total votes cast.
Republicans dominated political spending in the race. Conservative groups invested a grand total of $5.6 million in political donations and ad spending, compared to $656,423 for Democrats according to Roll Call.
Originally published by the Daily Caller.
