Republican Greg Gianforte emerged the winner of the Montana special Congressional election Thursday night, defeating Democratic challenger Rob Quist in a closely-watched race one day after he was charged with misdemeanor assault.
Commentators, pundits, and hot-takers were quick to weigh in on the outcome of the race, which had been followed closely as an early test of the level of Democratic enthusiasm and engagement following the election of President Donald Trump.
Gianforte had drawn 51 percent of the vote to Quist’s 44 percent, with 65 percent of precincts reporting, according to the Montana Secretary of State. Libertarian candidate Mark Wicks picked up 6 percent of the vote. The Associated Press called the race for Gianforte before 11:00 p.m. MT.
Below is a roundup of the media’s reaction to Gianforte’s win:
Matt Drudge:
Jessica Schulberg (HuffPost):
Van Badham (Guardian Australia):
Michael Tracey (The Young Turks):
Kevin M. Kruse:
Sarah Burris (HuffPost):
Sally Kohn:
Nu Wexler (Facebook):
Kyle Griffin (MSNBC):
Dave Weigel (Washington Post):
Alexis Levinson (Buzzfeed News):
Roger Simon:
Steve Kornacki:
Ryan Koronowski (ThinkProgress):
Dave Wasserman (Cook Political Report, FiveThirtyEight):
Kurt Schlichter (TownHall):
Haley Byrd (IJR):