2017 Montana's at-large congressional district special election

In Montana, an at-large congressional district special election was held on May 25, 2017, to determine the member of the United States House of Representatives for Montana's at-large congressional district. The election was necessitated by incumbent Republican Representative Ryan Zinke's appointment as United States Secretary of the Interior. Zinke resigned on March 1, 2017, upon his confirmation.

Montana's state law required the Governor of Montana to call for a special election to be held no less than 85 and no more than 100 days after the vacancy. Governor Steve Bullock declared a special election to take place on May 25, the earliest possible day he was legally allowed to choose.

The Democratic, Republican, Libertarian, and Green Parties held nominating conventions to decide their nominee. The day before the election, Gianforte assaulted a reporter and was charged with misdemeanor assault. At around 10:30pm MST, the election was called for Gianforte after 77% of the votes were counted.

Republican Party
The Republican Party nominated a candidate at a convention on March 6.

Nominated

 * Greg Gianforte, founder of RightNow Technologies and nominee for governor in 2016

Eliminated at convention

 * Edward Buttrey, state senator
 * Carl Glimm, state representative
 * Ken Miller, former state senator, former chair of the Montana Republican Party and candidate for governor in 2012
 * Samuel Redfern, nonprofit executive
 * Dean Rehbein, contractor
 * Ed Walker, former state senator

Withdrawn

 * Eugene Graf, businessman
 * Drew Turiano, real estate agent and perennial candidate

Declined

 * Gary Carlson, publisher of The White Hat Express
 * Russell Fagg, Yellowstone County District Judge
 * Matthew Rosendale, state auditor and candidate for this seat in 2014
 * Scott Sales, president of the State Senate
 * Richard B. Spencer, president of the National Policy Institute
 * Daniel Zolnikov, state representative

Democratic Party
The Democratic Party selected a nominee at a convention on March 5.

The Bozeman Daily Chronicle from February 4 to 8 conducted a straw poll of Democratic delegates. Of 89 delegates that responded, Rob Quist was selected by 37, Amanda Curtis by 30, Kelly McCarthy by 13, 9 were undecided, and zero delegates selected John Meyer or other.

Nominated

 * Rob Quist, musician, former spokesman and advocate for the Montana Food Bank, and former member of the Montana Arts Council

Eliminated at convention

 * Amanda Curtis, state representative and nominee for the U.S. Senate in 2014
 * Kelly McCarthy, state representative
 * John Meyer, attorney and executive director of the Cottonwood Environmental Law Center
 * Lee "Link" Neimark, ski instructor and small business owner
 * Gary Stein, teacher and candidate for the state house in 2008
 * Thomas Weida, retired businessman
 * Dan West, former aide to Senators Max Baucus and Mark Udall and former appointee to NASA

Declined

 * Zeno Baucus, Assistant U.S. Attorney and son of former U.S. Senator Max Baucus
 * Larry Jent, former state senator
 * Denise Juneau, former superintendent of public instruction and candidate for this seat in 2016
 * Casey Schreiner, state representative

Libertarian Party
The Libertarian Party Convention on March 11, 2017, was held at Eagle's Lodge in Helena, Montana.

The following county affiliate parties were represented at the convention:
 * Gallatin County
 * Flathead County
 * Park County
 * Missoula County
 * Ravalli County
 * Lake County
 * Yellowstone County
 * Broadwater County
 * Lewis and Clark County
 * Hill County

Officers of the Montana Libertarian Party and delegates from the assembled counties had voting rights.

Nominated

 * Mark Wicks, author, rancher and fruit salesman

Eliminated at convention

 * Joe Paschal, rancher and businessman
 * Chris Colvin, retired masonry contractor and writer
 * Evan Gardner, small business owner
 * Dan Nelson, IT administrator
 * Rufus Peace, accounting analyst
 * Nathan McKenty
 * James White, Uber driver

Withdrawn

 * Rick Breckenridge, land surveyor

Green Party
The Green Party Convention on March 4, 2017, was held at the University of Montana's Payne Family Native American Center.

Breck, along with two independent candidates, won a lawsuit in U.S. District Court against the Montana Secretary of State, ruling Montana's ballot access laws to be unconstitutional in the case of special elections. The District Court Judge ruled to change the original requirement to submit 14,268 ballot petition signatures, reducing that requirement to 400 signatures. The US Court decision failed to provide further remedy and Breck's name was not placed on the ballot despite injunctive appeals to the Ninth Circuit Court and U.S. Supreme Court. Breck subsequently endorsed Independent write-in candidate Doug Campbell who was a co-plaintiff in the suit.

Nominated

 * Thomas Breck

Campaign
During his 2017 Congressional special election campaign, Gianforte relaxed his past pledges to refuse all PAC money, and began to turn away only corporate PAC funding. His campaign began accepting contributions from political party and leadership PACs.

The night before the election, Gianforte physically assaulted Ben Jacobs, a reporter from The Guardian, in front of multiple witnesses, knocking him down, punching him, and breaking his glasses. Gianforte was subsequently charged with misdemeanor assault. The editorial boards of the Billings Gazette, the Independent Record, and the Missoulian rescinded their endorsements of Gianforte.

The Gianforte campaign released a statement following the incident alleging the incident was caused by, "this aggressive behavior from a liberal journalist", a claim contradictory to the eyewitness account of the Fox News team present in the room at the time. Alicia Acuna, one of two Fox news reporters present, and the only eyewitnesses to the incident, stated that Jacobs had walked into the room, put a voice recorder up to Gianforte's face and began asking questions. She stated that Jacobs, however, showed no sign of physical aggression and did not physically engage Gianforte before being attacked by the Republican candidate.

On June 12, following the election, Gianforte was sentenced to community service and fined $385 after admitting the charge.

Polling
{| class="wikitable" ! style="width:200px;"| Poll source ! style="width:160px;"| Date(s) administered ! class=small | Sample size ! Margin of error ! style="width:100px;"| Greg Gianforte (R) ! style="width:100px;"| Rob Quist (D) ! style="width:100px;"| Mark Wicks (L) ! styke="width:100px;"| Thomas Breck (G) ! Undecided
 * - valign= bottom
 * Change Research
 * align=center| May 20–23, 2017
 * align=center| 1,888
 * align=center| ± 2.0%
 * align=center| 49%
 * align=center| 44%
 * align=center| 7%
 * align=center| –
 * align=center| –
 * Gravis Marketing
 * align=center| May 22, 2017
 * align=center| 818
 * align=center| ± 3.4%
 * align=center| 49%
 * align=center| 35%
 * align=center| 8%
 * align=center| –
 * align=center| 9%
 * Gravis Marketing
 * align=center| May 2–4, 2017
 * align=center| 462
 * align=center| ± 4.6%
 * align=center| 45%
 * align=center| 37%
 * align=center| 5%
 * align=center| 3%
 * align=center| 10%
 * Gravis Marketing
 * align=center| April 27, 2017
 * align=center| 836
 * align=center| ± 3.4%
 * align=center| 52%
 * align=center| 39%
 * align=center| 6%
 * align=center| –
 * align=center| 2%
 * Garin-Hart-Yang (D)
 * align=center| April 25–27, 2017
 * align=center| 601
 * align=center| ± 4.0%
 * align=center| 49%
 * align=center| 43%
 * align=center| –
 * align=center| –
 * align=center| 8%
 * Emerson College
 * align=center| April 20–21, 2017
 * align=center| 648
 * align=center| ± 3.8%
 * align=center| 52%
 * align=center| 37%
 * align=center| 5%
 * align=center| –
 * align=center| 7%
 * Gravis Marketing
 * align=center| April 6, 2017
 * align=center| 1,222
 * align=center| ± 2.9%
 * align=center| 50%
 * align=center| 38%
 * align=center| 3%
 * align=center| 2%
 * align=center| 7%
 * align=center| 1,222
 * align=center| ± 2.9%
 * align=center| 50%
 * align=center| 38%
 * align=center| 3%
 * align=center| 2%
 * align=center| 7%

Results
County results

Counties that flipped from Republican to Democratic

 * Park (Largest city: Livingston)
 * Lewis and Clark (largest city: Helena)
 * Hill (largest city: Havre)