A 69-year-old, banjo-playing Democrat looks to shock American politics Thursday night after one of the wildest House races in memory.<\/b>
\nA wild, bitterly contested special election for Montana\u2019s lone congressional seat will come to a close on Thursday night \u2014 just one day after Republican candidate Greg Gianforte was charged with assaulting a reporter. The seat opened up after President Donald Trump appointed former Rep. Ryan Zinke as his interior secretary. Democrat Rob Quist, well known across the state for his banjo playing but facing criticism over a checkered history of failed debt payments, is looking for an upset in a state Trump won by 20 points this fall. Polls across the state are expected to close at 8 pm Montana time (10 pm EST) . If you\u2019 re on the East Coast and eager to learn the results, it may make more sense to just wait until tomorrow morning. As the New York Times\u2019s Nate Cohn writes, it could be well after the polls close before we get a final victory. If you (like us!) are staying up until the ballots are counted, check back here for updates. Montana is also posting. And for live analysis, three of the best Twitter accounts you can follow for election night are, the and. In the meantime, here\u2019s a brief guide to the two main candidates in the race \u2014 as well as what the outcome may mean for the national political scene as Democrats look for their first election win of the Trump era. Even though the Montana race may have consequences for evaluating the national political landscape, the outcome may be just as shaped by the personalities and personal eccentricities of the candidates themselves. Quist, 69, is renowned at home as a founding member of the Mission Mountain Wood Band (M2WB) . Attacked by his opponents as a Quist has praised Bernie Sanders and made affordable health care and defending public lands the centerpieces of his campaign. He\u2019s well known in the state for his music, which leads to headlines about \u201cthe poet\u201d running for Congress and allows Quist to get away with campaign lines like, \u201cI\u2019 ve really been representing Montana through my music and poetry all my life.\u201d More recently, Quist has come under a barrage of criticism for his personal financial history. In 2013, he was sued by Mission Mountain Wood Band bassist Steve Riddle for breach of contract. In May, the Associated Press that Montana filed three tax liens to collect about $15,000 in back taxes from Quist. A subsequent AP report showed that he \u2014 an on immediately. Still, it\u2019s not as if Quist\u2019s opponent comes through as a squeaky-clean candidate, either. Gianforte, 56, was born in California, educated in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and only came to Montana in 1995. After moving to Montana, Gianforte in a stream that ran by his property. As The Huffington Post, Gianforte ran for governor and lost to Gov. Steve Bullock (D-MT) in 2016. In the process, he spent more than $5 million of his own money in a failed gubernatorial bid. That was good for airing 30,661 television ads \u2014 more than that of any other state candidate in history, a staggering figure in such a small state. Gianforte\u2019s career has led Quist to seek inroads with voters by portraying his opponent as a corporate stooge. \u201cThe other choices we\u2019 re offered are really connected to corporate America, which in a lot of ways has undue influence on the politics of our country, \u201d Quist . \u201cMy goal is to be a strong, independent voice for the people of Montana.\u201d In 2016, House Democrats didn\u2019 t just face the obstacle of gerrymandering when going up against the GOP. They in red but achievable districts, including someone who had been unemployed for the past six years and a beekeeper with no elected experience. The special elections held so far \u2014 including Democrats\u2019 surprisingly strong showings in Georgia and Kansas \u2014 have helped encourage better Democratic candidates to throw their hats into the ring. Another surprisingly close race could indicate that Republicans face a rough map in 2018, which may encourage more qualified Democratic candidates to enter local races. \u201cIf the general feeling is that it represents a warning sign for Republicans, that has strong implications for whether Democratic candidates jump in for 2018, \u201d said Dave Hopkins, a Boston College political scientist. And the reverse effect also holds: If Republicans sense they\u2019 re in for a rough reelection bid, then vulnerable Republican incumbents will race toward the exits \u2014 creating more opportunities for House Democrats. \u201cThere\u2019s a self-fulfilling prophecy here, as incumbents consider retirement thinking they\u2019 ll face a tough race, which in turn makes the field tougher for Republicans, \u201d Hopkins said. We\u2019 re already getting signs that this trend is underway, with the unexpected of Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) in a competitive Florida House seat. A scare for the GOP in Montana would accelerate it. Similarly, on Capitol Hill, the Montana race put Republicans\u2019 legislative agenda on ice. In particular, the Montana race may reveal the extent to which Republicans embrace House Speaker Paul Ryan\u2019s American Health Care Act at their own political peril. On the campaign trail, Quist has responded to his personal travails by emphasizing the horror of the Republican health care bill. Last week, he hosted a series of \u201cHands Off Our Health Care\u201d events around the state. His rallies around the state with Sanders were billed as attempts His last ad buy, \u201cPreexisting, \u201d goes after Republicans for ending the Affordable Care Act\u2019s protections for patients with preexisting conditions: There\u2019s a good reason for Quist\u2019s team to go after the AHCA rather than Trump: The president remains popular in Montana. Meanwhile, the Medicaid expansion under Obamacare covered 70,000 Montanans, the AHCA is polling in the mid-20s nationally, and the approval rating of Obamacare is. Gianforte, meanwhile, has mostly ducked questions about his support for Ryan\u2019s health care bill. A tape obtained by the New York Times that Gianforte had praised the bill behind closed doors, but has said he wouldn\u2019 t of a lack of \u201cdata.\u201d The \u201cdata\u201d that came out on from the Congressional Budget Office, which conducts official analysis of bills, looked bad \u2014 an estimated 23 million more Americans would be uninsured in 10 years than under current law, as well grim outcomes for patients with preexisting conditions. A Guardian reporter, Ben Jacobs, was allegedly assaulted after asking Gianforte about the health care bill. Gianforte ran after being attacked over the AHCA. If Quist wins in a statewide race viewed as a referendum on the bill, Senate Republicans may be less willing to pass it.<\/p>\n

\n

Similarity rank: 25<\/div>\n

Sentiment rank: -0.2<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n