PEWAUKEE, Wis. — Wisconsin three-term Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin has successfully defended her seat from Republican challenger businessman Eric Hovde.
Baldwin narrowly won, with 49.4% of the vote to Hovde’s 48.5%, with 99% of votes counted, the Associated Press reports.
“I’m proud to head back to the Senate to keep fighting for our workers, farmers, and families that make our state great,” she told supporters in her victory speech.
Wisconsin lived up to its swing state status in the 2024 cycle, flipping red for Trump in the presidential contest and staying blue for Baldwin in the Senate.
The senator’s strategy of courting what she calls the “Trump-Tammy” voter in the weeks leading up to the election appears to have paid off, despite her liberal voting record.
Baldwin, the first openly gay US senator, will return to the Senate in January as a member of the minority party after Republicans picked up three seats, establishing a 52-seat majority as of Wednesday afternoon.
Hovde released a statement Wednesday saying he would continue to monitor results and was “disappointed” the spoiler candidate — “America First” candidate Thomas Leager — had siphoned votes away from him.
Throughout this hotly contested Senate battle, Baldwin repeatedly framed the Madison businessman as an out-of-state, wealthy elitist due to his California property in Orange County, using a series of negative past statements.
Meanwhile, Hovde hammered Baldwin on the campaign trail as an out-of-touch career 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 significant self-funding — along with a last-minute surge in Republican spending — helped boost him in polling the last few weeks of the election but was unable to close the gap with the liberal Senator.
Baldwin also played it safe throughout her campaign, avoiding appearances with Biden early on in the election season, despite voting with the president 96% of the time. Once he dropped out, she quickly pivoted to embrace Vice President Kamala Harris’ candidacy.
Known as one of the most liberal members of the US Senate, Baldwin is a co-author of the Women’s Health Protection Act — a legislative proposal to federally protect abortion access. She’s also said she would vote to eliminate the filibuster in order to codify Roe v. Wade, although she’d rather “reform” it.
Cook Political Report changed the race from Lean Democrat to Toss Up in the weeks before the election as Hovde showed a late surge in the polls.
Two additional Senate contenders — Libertarian candidate Phillip Anderson and America First candidate Thomas Leager — garnered more than 2% of the vote combined.
The RealClearPolling average for the Wisconsin Senate race leading up to the election had the two major-party candidates in a dead-even tie, 48% to 48%.