The race for Montana’s new house seat is now heating up for the November election.
Former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is the official winner in the GOP primary for Montana’s house seat. He will now face Olympic rower and attorney Monica Tranel for the House seat in November.
Zinke officially beat out four other Republicans. His main rival was surgeon Al Olszewski and it came down to a narrow win. The race wasn’t called until votes were counted in Lincoln county after a problem with wrong-sized ballots.
The Associated Press called the race on Thursday at 7:52 p.m. ET and made Zinke’s win final.
Former President Trump named him as the head of the Interior Department in 2017. Before that, in 2015 until 2017, Zinke represented Montana’s at-large congressional district. Montana gains the new congressional district as part of the decennial redistributing process. Zinke held a 1,608 lead over former state Senator Al Olszewski after Lincoln County had to hand-count votes. He beat Olszewski by less than two percentage points.