Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin Wins Reelection, Holding Key State For Democrats
Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin was projected to win a third term in the U.S. Senate on Wednesday, dispatching Republican businessman Eric Hovde in one of the nation’s hardest-fought Senate races.
The victory is a key step toward Democrats limiting their losses in the Senate, where Republicans are set to have a majority in 2025.
Her win, along with former President Donald Trump’s victory in Wisconsin, makes Baldwin only the second senator in the past decade to win reelection in a state where a presidential candidate of the opposite party triumphed.
Baldwin, the first out lesbian elected to the Senate, ran a campaign focused on protecting abortion rights and reaching out to the state’s rural voters, even earning the endorsement of the traditionally GOP-leaning Wisconsin Farm Bureau. She relentlessly attacked Hovde, a Wisconsin native who owns a bank based on the West Coast, as an out-of-state and out-of-touch billionaire. She used past clips of him disparaging farmers and other groups as a way to paint him as a “jerk.”
Hovde, who put $20 million of his own money into the race, ran on the signature issues animating Republican campaigns this cycle, including inflation, border security and transgender participation in youth sports.
Polls indicated Baldwin had a small lead heading into the election.
Baldwin’s victory means Wisconsin will continue as one of the few states in the union with a split Senate delegation. GOP Sen. Ron Johnson is Wisconsin’s other senator.
See full results from the Wisconsin Senate election here.
