Schwarze ahead in fourth round of Minn. GOP balloting, Tafoya also advances

Adam Schwarze remained the frontrunner in the fourth round of balloting Friday night with Michele Tafoya and Royce White hanging on in the top three as the state Republican Party aimed to pick a candidate to endorse in the U.S. Senate race.

Under the party’s rules, only the top two emerge after four rounds of voting, which means White, the party’s nominee for Senate two years ago, will not advance to a fifth ballot.

The threshold to get the endorsement is 60 percent of all ballots cast. Falling short of that, the top two candidates – Schwarze and Tafoya – moved on to a fifth ballot. Additional speeches were expected from each.

Here’s a breakdown of the vote totals from the fourth ballot:

• Schwarze - 809

• Tafoya - 603

• White - 448

• No endorsement - 8

• No preference - 4

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