Members of the Mineral County Republican party central committee were at the convention in Helena when businessman Greg Gianforte was chosen as the Montana Republican nominee for the special congressional election in May.

Gianforte faces Democrat Rob Quist in the contest to fill the House seat vacated by Ryan Zinke, who has assumed the Secretary of the Interior position.

County committee members Al and Nancy Acheson, Mark Ferris and House District 14 representative, Denley Loge, who was the proxy for Dennis Hildebrand, were there when Gianforte was picked after a single round of voting. Where he secured 150.5 votes by 8:45 p.m. in one round of voting Monday, March 6. Candidates needed 123 votes to win. Fractional votes are due to weighting by county population.

Gianforte beat out five other candidates, including state Rep. Carl Glimm, from Kila; state Rep. Ed Buttrey, from Great Falls; Ken Miller, a former state senator from Laurel; Dean Rehbein, a Missoula contractor; and Samuel Redfern, who runs a nonprofit in Missoula.