Dems Denied Again: Montana Republican Wins Despite Body Slam

Republican congressional candidate Greg Gianforte on Thursday survived a crisis of his own making, defeating Democrat Rob Quist in a special election in Montana.

Gianforte, who sold the technology company he and his wife founded for $10 million and later ran unsuccessfully for governor, was ahead by about six percentage points in the congressional race with 99 percent of precincts reporting. He appeared to be the front-runner in a state that President Donald Trump won last year by 20 percentage points. Then he almost torpedoed his own bid with a bizarre incident involving Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs.

“That’s not the person I am, and it’s not the way I’ll lead in this state.”

Gianforte apologized to Jacobs by name during his victory speech.

“That’s not the person I am, and it’s not the way I’ll lead in this state,” he said.

An audio recording replayed all day long Thursday on cable news captured Jacobs asking Gianforte about the new Congressional Budget Office analysis of the Republican health bill. Initially calm, Gianforte quickly became irate, and an altercation ensued.

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Jacobs claimed that Gianforte body-slammed him and broke his glasses. A Fox News crew that was in the room to interview the Republican candidate generally backed Jacobs’ account, although reporter Alicia Acuna on Thursday told LifeZette Editor-in-Chief Laura Ingraham that she initially had misstated that Gianforte had put his hands around Jacobs’ neck.

The Gallatin County Sheriff’s Office charged Gianforte with misdemeanor assault, and three newspapers took back their endorsements of the GOP candidate.

The large number of early ballots cast muted whatever impact the alleged assault might have had. Quist dramatically outperformed the 2016 Democratic presidential candidate. Unfortunately for him, he had too much ground to make up. Gianforte improved on his own performance as a losing candidate for governor last year.

In addition to Jacobs, Gianforte also apologized to the Fox News crew.

“Last night, I learned a lesson … I need to share something from my heart here,” he said. “And I just ask you to bear with me. And when you make a mistake, you have to own up to it. That’s the Montana way. Last night, I made a mistake. And I took an action that I can’t take back. I’m not proud of what happened.”

Gianforte hit hot-button issues for conservatives, including the Second Amendment and keeping state lands out of federal hands.

“Bernie Sanders and Nancy Pelosi can’t call the shots here in Montana,” he said.

Quist said Montanans would hold Gianforte accountable.

“Your voices were definitely heard in this election,” he said. “It has been such a great honor to run to be your representative.”

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Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel congratulated Gianforte in a statement Thursday night.

“Once again, voters responded to President Trump’s call to protect the hard work this administration has done to reform a burdensome tax code, cut onerous regulations, and relieve hardworking taxpayers across the country from the rising costs of Obamacare,” she said.

Thursday’s result represents another lackluster victory by a Republican in special election in a district where the GOP normally coasts. Republican Ron Estes won a race in Kansas in April by 7 percentage points in a district that Trump carried by 27 points in November.

The real test of the ability of anti-Trump forces to pull off an upset victory will come June 20 in Georgia’s 6th Congressional District runoff. Democrat Jon Ossoff, backed by massive amounts of money from outside of Georgia plus Hollywood star power, fell just shy of the 50 percent he needed to avoid a runoff in the first round of voting in April.

Gianforte’s alleged smackdown of Jacobs overshadowed a long trail of ethics questions that have followed Quist throughout the campaign.

According to the Associated Press, he under-reported his income by $57,000 on a financial disclosure form. The Billings Gazette reported he has a 16-year trail of financial problems that include unpaid loans and property taxes.

The Gazette also reported that Quist claimed that he was too sick to work, which prevented him from being able to pay his mortgage in 2011, despite the fact that he performed at least 35 concerts that year — including, according to The Washington Free Beacon, at a nudist colony.

The NBC station in Helena, Montana, reported that Quist even lied about his hunting record, claiming to be a lifelong hunter and fisherman despite having no state fishing or hunting license since at least 2002, the start of automated records.