There are still a few votes to be counted even after 3:00 a.m. the day after the Montana Special Election, but it's clear at this point that Republican Greg Gianforte has won the race, and by more than the five percent spread many had forecast.

All in all, Gianforte walked away with 50 percent of the vote (nearly 189,000 votes), Democrat Rob Quist came in second place with 44 percent (nearly 164,000 votes) and Libertarian Mark Wicks came in third with 6 percent (a little over 21,000 votes).

In a county by county match up, Gianforte had a majority of the vote in all but 10 of Montana's 56 counties. The ten counties that tilted to Quist include Bighorn, Blaine, Deer Lodge, Gallatin, Glacier, Lewis and Clark, Missoula, Park, Roosevelt, and Silver Bow. Quist won his largest margin of support in Montana's famous Democratic Party strongholds of Butte and Missoula where he took 63 percent of the vote.

Gianforte won by over 70 percent in thirteen counties and had his biggest lead in rural Garfield county where he took in 90 percent of the vote.

Poetically, Libertarian Mark Wicks had his best showing in Liberty County where he took 16 percent of the vote.

 

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