Former Trump Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke wins GOP nod in race for new Montana House seat

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke won an unexpectedly tight race Thursday to become the Republican nominee in the race for a new U.S. House seat representing western Montana, a victory that comes after days of hand-counting ballots in one county.

Zinke defeated former state Sen. Al “Doc” Olszewski by just over 1,600 votes out of 84,500 cast in the race, or 1.9 percentage points, according to preliminary numbers. Unofficial results had Zinke with 35,241 votes to 33,633 for Olszewski.

Zinke won “despite facing more than a million dollars of negative advertising against him” by three Republicans, two Democratic candidates and a Democratic Super-PAC, his campaign said in a statement.

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In a statement, Zinke thanked former President Donald Trump and others for their endorsements, as well as western Montana residents for their “confidence that America can be fixed and for ignoring” the political attacks.

Olszewski called Zinke to concede the race.

“We started as a big underdog and ran a race based on the conservative principles of our Republican Party,” Olszewski said in a statement, thanking those who voted for him.

Zinke was one of five Republicans on the primary ballot for the open seat, which Montana gained this year thanks to its growing population.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Primaries: Ryan Zinke wins GOP nod in race for new Montana House seat