PEWAUKEE, Wis. — Wisconsin three-term Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin has efficiently defended her seat from Republican challenger businessman Eric Hovde.
Baldwin narrowly gained, with 49.4% of the vote to Hovde’s 48.5%, with 99% of votes counted, the Related Press experiences.
“I’m proud to go again to the Senate to maintain combating for our staff, farmers, and households that make our state nice,” she informed supporters in her victory speech.
Wisconsin lived as much as its swing state standing within the 2024 cycle, flipping pink for Trump within the presidential contest and staying blue for Baldwin within the Senate.
The senator’s technique of courting what she calls the “Trump-Tammy” voter within the weeks main as much as the election seems to have paid off, regardless of her liberal voting file.
Baldwin, the primary brazenly homosexual US senator, will return to the Senate in January as a member of the minority occasion after Republicans picked up three seats, establishing a 52-seat majority as of Wednesday afternoon.
Hovde launched a assertion Wednesday saying he would proceed to watch outcomes and was “upset” the spoiler candidate — Libertarian Phillip Anderson — had siphoned votes away from him.
All through this hotly contested Senate battle, Baldwin repeatedly framed the Madison businessman as an out-of-state, rich elitist on account of his California property in Orange County, utilizing a sequence of unfavorable previous statements.
In the meantime, Hovde hammered Baldwin on the marketing campaign path as an out-of-touch profession politician who’s too liberal for swing state Wisconsin, aligning himself with Donald Trump as he courted the state’s Republican base.
The Madison businessman’s important self-funding — together with a last-minute surge in Republican spending — helped enhance him in polling the previous few weeks of the election however was unable to shut the hole with the liberal Senator.
Baldwin additionally performed it protected all through her marketing campaign, avoiding appearances with Biden early on within the election season, regardless of voting with the president 96% of the time. As soon as he dropped out, she rapidly pivoted to embrace Vice President Kamala Harris’ candidacy.
Generally known as one of the liberal members of the US Senate, Baldwin is a co-author of the Girls’s Well being Safety Act — a legislative proposal to federally defend abortion entry. She’s additionally stated she would vote to get rid of the filibuster in an effort to codify Roe v. Wade, though she’d somewhat “reform” it.
Cook dinner Political Report modified the race from Lean Democrat to Toss Up within the weeks earlier than the election as Hovde confirmed a late surge within the polls.
Two extra Senate contenders — Libertarian candidate Phillip Anderson and America First candidate Thomas Leager — garnered greater than 2% of the vote mixed.
The RealClearPolling common for the Wisconsin Senate race main as much as the election had the 2 major-party candidates in a dead-even tie, 48% to 48%.