Republican Greg Gianforte wins Montana special congressional election

BOZEMAN, Mont. -- Republican Greg Gianforte has won the hotly-contested, closely-watched Montana special election for their one congressional seat. The win comes a day after Gianforte was charged with assaulting a reporter from The Guardian.

With a 54% statewide voter turnout, Republican Greg Gianforte won 50% of the vote to the Democrat Rob Quist's 44%. Mark Wicks, the Libertarian candidate took 6% of the votes. All 681 districts have been tallied.

The Montana Secretary of State has the official final election results.

In this latest special election, the race was already thought to have narrowed leading up to Election Day. Until Wednesday, Gianforte was believed to have an edge -- before Wednesday's scuffle when, according to a news crew that witnessed the incident, Gianforte pushed a reporter to the ground and punched him. The reporter, Ben Jacobs of The Guardian, accused Gainforte of body-slamming him and caught the alleged incident on audio tape.

Despite the fact that Gianforte was charged with misdemanor assault over the incident, he was still favored to win, at least in part because morwe than half the ballots had already been cast before the election.