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Wisconsin Republican Eric Hovde conceded defeat on Monday to Democratic incumbent Tammy Baldwin in their U.S. Senate race, saying he didn’t need to “add to political strife by a contentious recount” although he raised debunked election conspiracies.
Hovde, who was backed by President-elect Donald Trump, may have requested a recount as a result of his margin of defeat was lower than 1 share level, at about 29,000 votes. He would have needed to pay for it himself.
Baldwin’s marketing campaign referred requests for touch upon Hovde’s concession on Monday to her victory speech. In that handle, Baldwin pledged to work with Trump when potential but additionally vowed to combat him to guard the nationwide well being care legislation and abortion rights.
Hovde, in his concession video, repeated claims he made saying there have been “many troubling points” associated to absentee ballots in Milwaukee and once they had been reported. Republicans, Democrats and nonpartisan election leaders all refuted the claims of impropriety Hovde made.
“With no detailed overview of all of the ballots and their legitimacy, which can be troublesome to acquire within the courts, a request for a recount would serve no function as a result of you’ll simply be recounting the identical ballots no matter their integrity,” Hovde mentioned Monday.
Though there is no such thing as a proof of wrongdoing within the election, many Hovde supporters questioned a surge in votes for Baldwin that had been reported by Milwaukee round 4:30 a.m. the morning after the election. These votes put Baldwin excessive.
The votes had been the tabulation of absentee ballots from Milwaukee. These ballots are counted at a central location and reported abruptly, typically properly after midnight on Election Day. Elections officers for years have made clear that these ballots are reported later than common due to the sheer quantity that must be counted and the truth that state legislation doesn’t permit for processing them earlier than polls open.
Republicans and Democrats alike, together with state and Milwaukee election leaders, warned within the days and weeks main as much as the election that the Milwaukee absentee ballots could be reported late and trigger an enormous inflow of Democratic votes.
Hovde additionally repeated his criticism concerning the candidacy of Thomas Leager, who ran as a member of the America First Get together. Leager, a far-right candidate who was recruited by Democratic operatives and donors to run as a conservative, completed a distant fourth.
Republicans supported impartial presidential candidates Cornel West and Jill Stein in efforts to take votes away from Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris. And Robert F. Kennedy Jr. tried to get his identify faraway from the poll in Wisconsin and different swing states after he backed Trump.
Within the Wisconsin Senate race, Leager received about 400 fewer votes than the margin between Baldwin and Hovde. However Hovde claimed on Monday that he would have gained the Senate race if Leager had not been on the poll.
Baldwin declared victory after The Related Press known as the race for her on Nov. 6. She outperformed Harris, who misplaced Wisconsin by about as many votes as Baldwin defeated Hovde.
The Baldwin win got here within the face of Democratic losses nationwide that allowed Republicans to take management of the Senate.
Her win was the narrowest of her three Senate races. Baldwin gained in 2012 by virtually 6 share factors and in 2018 by practically 11 factors.
Hovde, a multimillionaire financial institution proprietor and actual property developer, first ran for Senate in 2012 however misplaced within the Republican major. He poured tens of millions of {dollars} of his personal cash into his shedding marketing campaign this yr.
Hovde on Monday didn’t rule out one other political marketing campaign sooner or later. Some Republicans have floated him as a possible candidate for governor in 2026.
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit and nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our publication to get our investigative tales and Friday information roundup. This story is printed in partnership with The Related Press.
