Republican Greg Gianforte's 50 percent to 44 percent defeat of Democrat Rob Quist in last week's Montana's special election didn't make nearly as much noise as his eleventh hour "body slam" of a reporter. In fact, the episode—which took place after nearly three quarters of voters had already cast their ballots - gave Republicans a way to excuse what was otherwise a poor performance in a district President Trump won by 20 points. Midterm elections are mostly about engaging your party's base. This is doubly true in the current era when there are fewer truly persuadable voters than ever before. Simply put, Democrats are a lot more energized than Republicans right now. So far in the three seriously contested special elections of 2017, the Democratic candidates have won an average of 72 percent of Hillary Clinton's vote totals in each district, while the Republican candidates have averaged just 56 percent of Trump's vote totals. In Montana's high-turnout special, Quist won 94 percent of Clinton's vote total, while Gianforte recorded 68 percent of Trump's total. That bodes well for Democrats in
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