An influx of outsiders and money turns Montana Republican, culminating in a Senate triumph

Democrats’ crushing loss in Montana’s nationally important U.S. Senate race settled a fierce political debate over whether a surge of newcomers in the past decade favored Republicans. It also addressed the question of whether one of the new arrivals could even take high office. Voters answered with an emphatic “yes” to both. One party now rules Montana for the first time since mining barons known as the Copper Kings had a corrupt chokehold on the state’s politics more than a century ago. An aversion to outsiders that arose from those times has faded, replaced by a partisan fervor that Republicans capitalized on during the election.