Tuesday night started off with good news for republicans with the governor's race called almost immediately after polls closed at 8 p.m. and Republican incumbent Gov. Greg Gianforte taking the stage.
“I can tell you that serving as your governor these last four years has been the greatest honor of my life, and now we get four more years. Cheers,” Gianforte said.
The atmosphere was lively with a raffle for a rifle, and drinks flowing for the 850 people who attended the election night party in Bozeman.
Live coverage from Fox News of the presidential race was projected on a screen on stage. The screen was raised throughout the night as other Montana GOP candidates took the stage including Attorney General Austin Knudsen and Superintendent of Public Instruction-elect Susie Hedalen.
Cheers erupted just before midnight Tuesday when Fox News projected a win for Donald Trump and the crowd danced to the YMCA.
At 2:30 a.m., after most of the crowd had left, Republican Sen. Steve Daines introduced Tim Sheehy as the junior senator from Montana.
Around 4:30 a.m. Wednesday morning, the Associated Press called the race for Sheehy, who successfully ousted three-term Democratic incumbent Sen. Jon Tester.
“I took an oath to serve all Americans, and I’ll take an oath here to serve all Montanans,” Sheehy said.
