PEWAUKEE, Wis. — Third-term Wisconsin Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin successfully defended her seat against her Republican challenger, businessman Eric Hovde.
According to the Associated Press, Baldwin narrowly won with 49.4% of the vote and Hovde with 48.5%, with 99% of the votes counted.
“I am proud to return to the Senate to continue fighting for the workers, farmers, and families that make our state great,” she told supporters in her victory speech.
Wisconsin remained a battleground state in the 2024 cycle, with Trump turning red in the presidential election and Baldwin remaining blue in the Senate.
Despite the senator's liberal voting history, her strategy to court voters she calls “Trump Tammy” appears to have worked in the weeks leading up to the election.
Baldwin, the first openly gay U.S. senator, entered the Senate as a minority member in January after Republicans picked up three seats, establishing a 52-seat majority as of Wednesday afternoon. is scheduled to return.
Hovde is statement On Wednesday, he said he would continue to monitor the results and said he was “disappointed” that spoiler candidate Libertarian Philip Anderson had siphoned votes from him.
Throughout this bitter Senate race, Baldwin used a series of negative statements to paint the Madison businessman as a wealthy out-of-state elitist because of his holdings in Orange County, California. Made repeatedly. past statements.
On the campaign trail, Hovde criticized Baldwin as an out-of-touch career politician who is too liberal for the battleground state of Wisconsin, aligning himself with Donald Trump, who is popular with the state's Republican base.
The Madison businessman poured in large sums of his own money and a last-minute surge in Republican spending helped boost his support in polls in the final weeks of the election, but he lost ground to his liberal fellow senator. I couldn't fill it.
Baldwin also played it safe throughout the campaign, avoiding running with Biden early in the campaign, despite voting for the president 96% of the time. After he resigned, she quickly pivoted to supporting Vice President Kamala Harris' candidacy.
Baldwin, known as one of the most liberal members of the U.S. Senate, is a co-author of the Women's Health Protection Act, a legislative proposal that would provide federal protections for access to abortion. She also said She would vote to abolish the filibuster to codify Roe v. Wade, but would rather “reform” it.
Cook Political Report changed the race from “Lean Democrat” to “Toss Up” in the weeks before the election after Hovde showed a late rally in the polls.
Two additional Senate candidates, Libertarian candidate Philip Anderson and America First candidate Thomas Rieger, received more than 2% of the vote combined.
The RealClearPolling average for Wisconsin Senate races leading up to the election had the two major party candidates tied, 48% to 48%.
