MADISON, Wis. (AP) – Wisconsin’s hotly contested race for the U.S. Senate between Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin and Republican Eric Hovde, who was backed by President-elect Donald Trump, appeared close enough early Wednesday to request a recount.
Baldwin, a two-term incumbent president, declared victory early Wednesday over Hovde, a multimillionaire businessman who poured millions of his own money into the race. The Associated Press did not call the race. Hovde’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Baldwin declared victory after the number of absentee ballots from Milwaukee was reported around 4:30 a.m. Wednesday. Baldwin had a 0.9% lead based on the unofficial results, just within the 1% margin that would allow Hovde to request a recount if he paid for it.
“The people of Wisconsin have elected someone who will always put Wisconsin first, someone who will show up, listen and work with everyone to get the job done,” Baldwin said in a statement. “And they rejected the billionaires and the special interests who want to come to our state, spread hatred and division and buy their way into power.”
On Tuesday evening, Hovde blamed the tight race on America First candidate Thomas Leager, a far-right candidate who was recruited by Democratic operatives and donors to run as a conservative.
Leager came a distant fourth, but received more votes than the margin between Baldwin and Hovde.
“It’s a shame if the Democrats hadn’t built a factory, this probably would have happened a while ago,” Hovde told his supporters before sending them home. ‘But you know what? It is what it is.”
Baldwin was ahead of Vice President Kamala Harris, who lost Wisconsin to Republican Donald Trump by less than a percentage point. That marks the fifth time in the past seven presidential elections that a presidential election in Wisconsin has been decided by less than one point.
A Baldwin victory would come despite Republicans taking control of the U.S. Senate by flipping Democratic seats in Ohio and West Virginia.
Democrats hoped for a Baldwin victory to prevent Republicans from holding both seats in the Wisconsin Senate.
Although Baldwin’s voting record is liberal, she emphasized bipartisanship during her campaign. She became the first statewide Democratic candidate in more than two decades to receive endorsements from the Wisconsin Farm Bureau, the state’s largest farm organization.
Hovde tried to portray Baldwin as an excessive liberal career politician who had not done enough to fight inflation, illegal immigration and crime.
Baldwin won her first Senate race in 2012, against popular former Republican Governor Tommy Thompson, by nearly 6 percentage points. Hovde lost to Thompson in that year’s primary. Baldwin won re-election in 2018 by almost 11 points.
