Troy Downing victorious in Montana primary, set to succeed Matt Rosendale

Montana State Auditor Troy Downing won the contested Republican primary to replace the retiring Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-MT), who announced earlier this year he would not run for reelection in the solidly Republican seat.

Downing won the race for Montana’s 2nd Congressional District with 37.9% of the vote with 4% of ballots tallied. The Associated Press called the race in Downing’s favor at 9:27 p.m. local time.

The primary comes after Rosendale announced he would not seek a third term in the House, arguing there was not enough room in Congress to break the status quo away from “those who benefit from the current structure to keep things as they are,” he said at the time. His retirement decision came after a weekslong back-and-forth during which the Montana Republican changed his mind on what his path forward would be.

Rosendale initially announced his intent to run for Senate in early February, pitting himself against Republican candidate Tim Sheehy, who had already received the support of the National Republican Senatorial Committee and other high-profile party members. However, it wasn’t until former President Donald Trump endorsed Sheehy over Rosendale that his Senate bid began to unravel, prompting him to suspend his campaign just one week later.

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Rosendale later launched his House reelection campaign on Feb. 28 before dropping that bid just over a week later.

Downing is now favored to win the seat in November as the district is rated as R+16 by the nonpartisan Cook Political Report.