UPDATE (2:05 pm ET): Commentators begin to speculate as to why Democratic incumbent Jon Tester beat his GOP opponent despite the state’s 20-point support for Trump in 2016. From CNN:
Tester attacked Rosendale as an out-of-state developer by highlighting his ties to Maryland. Those attacks were helped by Rosendale’s competitive and negative primary, which provided the Tester campaign with plenty to use against the Republican. Tester closed the campaign by attacking Rosendale as ‘all hat, not cattle.’
What’s most interesting about the Montana race is how the vote split between Democrat Jon Tester for the U.S. Senate and Republican Greg Gianforte for the U.S. House. Incumbent Gianforte, the infamous body-slammer, delivered a smackdown victory to his Democratic opponent, Kathleen Williams, by a substantial margin – 52% to 45.3%. Since Montana has only one representative, that means voters overwhelmingly elected to split the ticket between the Democrat in the U.S. Senate and the Republican in the U.S. House. Unfortunately, the former has far more say in the direction of the country than the latter.
UPDATE (1:35 pm ET): Democratic incumbent Jon Tester delivered his victory speech after being introduced by several family members. The Senator called for an age of bi-partisanship that focuses on issues that benefit Americans, such as social security and healthcare. He said this despite opposing two of President Trump’s nominees to the Supreme Court.
UPDATE (1:05 pm ET): Democratic incumbent Jon Tester has just been declared the victor for the U.S. Senate by the Associated Press:
UPDATE (1:00 pm ET): Tester is reportedly preparing to take the stage to announce he has won the Senate seat over GOP challenger Matt Rosendale. From KPAX:
Democratic U.S. Senator Jon Tester will be taking the stage to announce that he has won reelection over Republican challenger Matt Rosendale.
Click here to watch live coverage of Sen. Tester’s speech once he takes the stage.
Sen. Tester retook the lead Wednesday morning in his seesaw contest against Rosendale, while thousands of votes still remained uncounted in several major cities — including Democratic-leaning Missoula and Bozeman.
At about 9:40 a.m., the first vote results posted since early in the morning gave Tester a 1,000-vote lead, with 48.7% of the total to 48.4% for Rosendale. Libertarian Rick Breckenridge was holding steady at just under 3%.
UPDATE (12:45 pm ET): Democratic incumbent Jon Tester has taken a sizable lead over GOP challenger Matt Rosendale – 49% to 48.1%.
218,145 votes for Tester; 213, 935 votes for Rosendale.
After a contentious race, the fight over the U.S. Senate seat in Montana still remains too close to call, with Democratic incumbent Jon Tester maintaining a slight lead over GOP challenger Matt Rosendale by 1,021 votes – 48.7% to 48.4%.
According to word on the ground, however, it appears that Tester is likely headed to a third term, given that the remaining votes are in counties where the incumbent holds the lead.
Check back in for updates.