Montana sends GOP senator to Washington

Rep. Steve Daines defeated Democratic candidate Amanda Curtis on election night by a comfortable margin. He was declared the winner minutes after the poll closed, holding a 12-point lead with about half the votes counted. His win was fifth of the six Republican pick-ups of a Democratic seat needed to flip the Senate to Republican control.

Daines had been leading the polls as a strong favorite ever since Democratic Sen. John Walsh suddenly withdrew from the race amid accusations he had plagiarized a 2007 research paper at the U.S. Army War College. Curtis, a first-term state representative and a high-school math teacher, began her campaign 11 weeks ago, championing abrasive liberal ideologies in a conservative-leaning state. Daines, a one-term congressman and a successful businessman who ran on the campaign slogan “More Jobs, Less Government,” has long been a strong proponent of the pro-life movement, gun rights, construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline, and balancing the federal budget.

Meanwhile, Republican Ryan Zinke, a retired Navy SEAL officer and former state senator, won the U.S. House of Representatives seat, defeating Democrat John Lewis and replacing Daines.