MISSOULA, Mont._Republican Greg Gianforte overcame a last-minute assault charge to win Montana's special congressional election Thursday, keeping its lone House seat in GOP hands and dealing Democrats a setback in their bid to gain a red-state toehold ahead of the 2018 midterm election.
Gianforte, 56, a wealthy businessman who ran unsuccessfully for governor in November, had long been the front-runner against Democrat Rob Quist, a professional bluegrass musician making his first run for public office.
With more than three-quarters of the votes counted, Gianforte was holding a steady 51 percent-to-43 percent lead.
Republicans have held Montana's at-large House seat for more than two decades, and President Donald Trump carried the state by more than 20 percent over Hillary Clinton.
But an election-eve scuffle between Gianforte and a reporter covering the race seemed to throw the outcome into doubt and shined an even brighter spotlight on the contest, which already drew nationwide attention and more than $17 million in spending _ an extraordinary sum in the sparsely populated state.
Overnight, what many viewed, correctly or not, as a referendum on President Trump became instead a kind of inkblot test on attitudes toward the news media.
Gianforte was cited for misdemeanor assault Wednesday night after accusations that he body-slammed Ben Jacobs, a journalist for the Guardian newspaper, when Jacobs approached the candidate at his Bozeman headquarters to ask about the House GOP health care bill. Gianforte was ordered to appear in court no later than June 7, and faces a maximum $500 fine or six months in jail if convicted.
Several of Montana's largest newspapers retracted their endorsement of the front-runner, who has had a reputation in the state for prickliness _ especially when dealing with reporters.
"We're at a loss for words," wrote the Billings Gazette editorial board, which went on to condemn Gianforte and suggest the country needed to "take a long look in the mirror and a few deep breaths. This incident is not Montana. It's not America.... We must adopt zero tolerance for such behavior if freedom of expression means anything."
But many Gianforte supporters stuck by the candidate, minimizing the episode or saying they were not sure they trusted the media's account.
Payne Stidham of Billings was among more than half of Montanans who voted absentee, casting his vote earlier this month for Gianforte.
"I don't know all the facts, so I'm not going to pass judgment," Stidham said Thursday. "I mean, you watch the news and it makes it seem like he beat the crap out of the guy. Did he? I don't know. I really just do not know."
The effect of the episode was further minimized by the fact that more than 250,000 absentee ballots had already been cast by Wednesday, a substantial number in a state with about 700,000 eligible voters.
Gianforte spent the day in seclusion, canceling a battery of scheduled TV appearances. Quist said the incident was a "matter for law enforcement" and declined to comment further.
But reverberations from the altercation were felt as far as Capitol Hill, where Republican lawmakers scrambled to deal with the unflattering portrayal of their candidate behaving like a hockey goon.
House Speaker Paul D. Ryan criticized Gianforte and said he should apologize.
"There is no time where a physical altercation should occur," the Wisconsin Republican told reporters at his weekly news briefing. "It should not have happened. Should the gentleman apologize? Yeah, I think he should apologize."
But he stopped short of saying Gianforte would not be welcomed within the House GOP. "If he wins, he has been chosen by the people of Montana," Ryan said. "I'm going to let the people of Montana decide who they want as their representative."
The special election was set when Republican Rep. Ryan Zinke vacated the seat to head the Interior Department.
Quist benefited from millions of dollars and the support from liberal activists around the country who defied national Democratic Party leaders prepared to essentially write the race off. Eventually, the party stepped up its engagement.
With Gianforte's victory, Republicans managed to hold their ground after a series of special elections. Democrats need 24 seats to take control of the House in the 2018 elections, and the focus now turns to a runoff next month for an open seat in Georgia, where Democrat Jon Ossoff fell just shy of 50 percent in April.
But in the hours after Gianforte's altercation, the Democratic Party and Quist supporters scrambled to capitalize on the incident. They placed radio and online advertisements _ it was too late for TV spots _ that included audio of the confrontation; a loud crash was heard along with the Republican hopeful hollering a stream of obscenities.
"If Greg Gianforte could be sentenced to jail," asked the ad placed by Democrats' national campaign committee, "should he really be elected to Congress?"
The GOP has held Montana's congressional seat for 23 years. Will Trump and an alleged body-slam change that?
Before the scuffle consumed the final 24 hours of the contest, the race had been much more about local concerns, including the candidates' position on firearms _ each presented himself as a firm champion of Second Amendment gun rights _ and the personalities and back stories of the two major candidates.
Quist was battered by TV ads that spotlighted his history of tax liens and other checkered financial dealings. Gianforte was portrayed as an elitist who sued to block public access to a fishing spot on his Bozeman property _ a quite serious matter in a state where hunting and fishing are held sacred.
Quist sought to make the GOP health care bill an issue, saying it would cost more than 70,000 Montanans their coverage under the existing law and cause premiums to skyrocket, especially for the majority of residents who live in rural areas.
While some, especially outside the state, treated the contest as a test of Trump's political standing, neither side tried to make the election a proxy vote on the president. Gianforte backed the president and welcomed support from his surrogates, including Vice President Mike Pence.
Mostly, though, he focused on attacking Quist as a liberal out of step with Montana.
Quist, in turn, shied away from direct attacks on Trump, instead focusing on Gianforte and the Republican majority in Congress.
At the Democrat's sullen election-night party in Missoula, disappointed Quist supporters took solace where they could.
Stacy Coulter said she only wished Gianforte's "volatile temper" had been exposed earlier.
"At least he has showed his true colors," said the 44-year-old Democrat, an office manager for the Bitterroot Irrigation District. She suggested the alleged assault recalled some of the more belligerent moments of Trump's 2016 campaign. "And this might force the GOP to address the bullying issue."
