Among record Montana voter turnout, Montanans made themselves heard Tuesday night. Republican candidates swept the statewide races for Governor, U.S. Senate, and both U.S. House districts.
The Gubernatorial race was the first to be called, with the Associated Press announcing a Greg Gianforte re-election victory just three minutes after the polls closed at 8:00pm. At the time of editing, with 91 percent of precincts reporting, Governor Gianforte holds a commanding 59.6-38.0 lead over Democratic candidate Ryan Busse. Libertarian Kaiser Leib garnered 2.4 percent of the vote. Despite the early calling of the race and the nearly 22-point margin, Busse took until this morning to concede. At 12:30am he made a cryptic post on X, with the sole word “Resist”, and didn’t issue a conciliatory statement until 9:19am Wednesday morning. Other Gubernatorial races of note include North Carolina, Vermont, and New Hampshire. In North Carolina, a state President Trump won, the Democratic candidate, Josh Stein, has won by over 14-points. In Vermont, despite going to Vice President Harris by over 30-points, re-elected Republican Phil Scott by a margin of over 50-points. New Hampshire similarly went to Harris, but elected another Republican Governor in Kelly Ayotte.
The Senate race took a while longer, but former Navy SEAL and Republican candidate Tim Sheehy did what many Republicans before him couldn’t: unseat Senator Jon Tester. Sheehy gave his victory speech at approximately 2:30am, in which he thanked Senator Tester for his service, his family for their support, and his voters. At the time of editing, Sheehy holds an 8.4-point lead over the incumbent Senator. According to the Montana Free Press, Tester called Sheehy around 6:30am on Wednesday morning to concede. While the results took until the early morning to call, the writing seemed to be on the wall once Bernie Moreno won in Ohio fairly early in the night, as he was in a similar situation of a red presidential state with a three-term incumbent Democratic Senator. Republicans have taken the U.S. Senate majority with the flipping of West Virginia, Ohio, and Montana. With 96 percent reporting in Pennsylvania and Dave McCormick up 0.8 percent it looks like they’ll flip a fourth seat to command a 53-47 seat majority. The Senate races in Michigan, Wisconsin, Nevada, and Arizona are all also considered too close to call.
In the House races, Troy Downing claimed an uneventful and early victory, as he has beaten Democrat John Driscoll by 30-points. Congressman Ryan Zinke, in the much more competitive first district, had to wait until after 4:00am for his race to be called against Democrat Monica Tranel. With 88% reporting, he holds a 9.1-point lead. As of writing, NBC has called five Republican flips and two Democrat flips in the U.S. House, for a net gain of three Republican seats nationwide. While there are still around 40 uncalled races, it appears increasingly likely that Republicans will retain the majority in the U.S. House, and may even expand what was a slim majority.
