In victory speech, Tammy Baldwin says her winning formula is 'listen' and 'deliver'
MADISON – As U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin described it, she won her hard-fought race for a third term in the Senate the way she has approached her job — doing "everything, everywhere, all at once."
Baldwin recounted campaign visits to all corners of Wisconsin In her victory speech at Steamfitters Local 601 in Madison on Thursday. Her win, however narrow, means a continued streak of winning every political contest she's entered at the county, state and federal level.
"I listen to people. I really listen to people, and then deliver for them," she said. "And in turn, these Wisconsinites showed up for me."
Baldwin defeated Republican businessman Eric Hovde by a slim margin this week, hanging onto her Senate seat in what she'd called one of the toughest battles of her political career. With 99% of the votes counted, she led Hovde by 28,958 votes.
The Associated Press called the race for Baldwin Wednesday afternoon, though as of Thursday morning, Hovde had yet to concede.
On Thursday, appearing to a room full of cheers and chants, Baldwin thanked farmers, manufacturing workers, LGBTQ families who she said "saw through the nasty attack campaign" and Wisconsin women "who had rights stripped away and saw me on the front lines fighting for their freedom."
She focused on health care, mentioning a childhood illness that forever marked her as having a pre-existing condition and saying she'd redouble efforts to pass her Women's Health Protection Act, which would effectively codify the right to abortion.
She acknowledged that though she'd won her race, Vice President Kamala Harris had lost in Wisconsin and nationally and Republicans regained the majority in the Senate. That means Baldwin will head back to Washington in the minority party with former President Donald Trump back in the White House. The majority control of the House of Representatives hasn't been determined as some races nationally remain uncalled.
"The people of Wisconsin chose Donald Trump, and I respect their choice," Baldwin said Thursday. "I will always fight for Wisconsin, and that means working with President Trump to do that, and standing up to him when he doesn't have our best interest at heart."
Introducing Baldwin, Democratic Party of Wisconsin chairman Ben Wikler praised her efforts to campaign in red and blue areas of Wisconsin alike.
"In Wisconsin, the essential battleground state, the land of the nail-biter, this is how we win elections — by doing the work," Wikler said.
The race between Baldwin and Hovde was bitter, expensive and one of the most closely watched in the country.
Hovde, a multimillionaire bank mogul who previously ran for the U.S. Senate in 2012, entered the race in February and quickly painted Baldwin as a career politician whose progressive ideas were wrong for Wisconsin.
Throughout the race, Baldwin and her allies characterized Hovde as an out-of-touch carpetbagger because of his California-based businesses and home in Laguna Beach . On the campaign trail, she was fond of joking that Wisconsin has a Green County and a Brown County, but not an Orange County.
The hotly contested race drew in significant financial support, with outside groups dropping more than $100 million in addition to the tens of millions the campaigns spent themselves. Hovde partially funded his campaign himself, spending at least $20 million of his own money so far .
Neither Baldwin nor Wikler referred to Hovde or the lack of a concession in the race, which remains within a margin at which the Republican could seek a recount.
Before sending his supporters home from an election night watch party at the Edgewater Hotel in Madison, Hovde blamed the close contest on America First candidate Thomas Leager, who was recruited to run by a small group of Democrats posing as conservatives . Leager — a far-right, gun-rights advocate — received more than 28,717 votes by Wednesday afternoon. That number is 241 votes short of Baldwin's margin of victory.
Daniel Bice of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel contributed to this .
Madeline Heim is a Report for America corps reporter at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. at 920-996-7266 or .
