U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Madison, beat businessman Eric Hovde by a margin of 28,808 votes as she won reelection to the office she’s held since 2013, according to a WisPolitics review of final results from counties.
That’s just more than the 28,751 votes America First candidate Thomas Leager received. Hovde has argued he would’ve won the election if Leager hadn’t been in the race, noting Dems helped put the third-party candidate on the ballot.
Overall, Baldwin received 1,672,777 votes to Hovde’s 1,643,969 votes. Phil Anderson, who ran under the “Disrupt the Corruption” banner, got 42,315 votes.
The margin between Hovde and Baldwin was 0.8% — within the margin for a recount, though Hovde would have had to pay for it out of his own pocket. A second-place candidate can request a recount if the margin is less than 1%, but has to cover the costs unless the difference is 0.25 points or less.
Hovde conceded to Baldwin on Monday, saying a “request for a recount would serve no purpose” because it would only involve recounting the ballots.
In the presidential race, President-elect Donald Trump won with 1,697,626 votes compared to Vice President Kamala Harris’ 1,668,229 votes, a margin of 28,397 votes.
The last county canvass was submitted to the Elections Commission this week. WisPolitics checked the final results posted at county clerk’s websites or checked with their offices to get the final numbers in the Senate and presidential races. Elections Commission Chair Ann Jacobs plans to certify canvass statements on Friday.
