Montana Democrats pick Quist to run for congressional seat

HELENA — Musician and political novice Rob Quist on Sunday captured the Democratic nomination for the May 25 special election to fill the state’s only congressional seat.

Quist prevailed over seven other candidates, including two experienced legislators who trailed the entertainer from the start of Sunday’s balloting in Helena.

Montana will be without a representative in the U.S. House until a successor is elected for Republican Rep. Ryan Zinke, who resigned his seat last week after being confirmed to lead the U.S. Interior Department.

“I come here not as a career politician rising through the ranks,” said Quist told delegates during opening speeches. “As a poet-musician, I ask you to look outside the bubble of Helena to a man who has represented Montana from behind a different kind of microphone.”

Quist is making his first run for office in his party’s bid to recapture a seat that a Democrat has not held in 20 years.

State Reps. Kelly McCarthy and Rep. Amanda Curtis were also vying for the party’s nomination.

McCarthy of Billings pitched himself to fellow Democrats as an experienced campaigner who is well-versed in policy and national security matters.

Curtis, the only woman vying for her party’s nomination, sought to persuade delegates that her gender won’t be a barrier in winning the seat.

Curtis was seeking to be only the second woman elected to Congress from the Treasure State. In 1917, Montana Republican Jeannette Rankin became the first woman to be elected to the U.S. Congress.

Quist, a singer and guitarist for the Mission Mountain Wood Band, said he has traveled to more than 40 counties in recent weeks to meet Democratic central committee members, who make up the bulk of convention delegates.

“I’ve been trying to make a personal connection with everybody who has to make a decision in this,” he said.

Republicans hold their nominating convention Monday and will choose from six candidates, including Greg Gianforte, who was the party’s nominee for governor in November.

Democrats are already attacking Gianforte, who has asserted that he has the necessary delegates to clinch the GOP nomination.

Quist said he was proud to carry the banner for the Montana’s Democratic Party.

Quist will have to quickly unify Democrats not only in getting votes out but in getting contributions for his campaign.

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Associated Press writer Matt Volz contributed to this story.