 Daines won the Republican primary on June 3, 2014, obtaining 83.4% of the vote to defeat Missoula state representative Champ Edmunds and political newcomer Susan Cundiff.Walsh won the Democratic primary with 64% of the vote.In August 2014, Walsh withdrew from the race following the publication of a "New York Times" article that accused him of plagiarism in a paper written as part of his master's degree work at the U.S. Army War College.