Democratic incumbent easily tops Vukmir
In a state that President Donald Trump carried two years ago, Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin gained a strikingly comfortable victory over Republican Leah Vukmir Tuesday.
Focusing relentlessly on health care and zeroing in smartly on parochial and populist issues like Wisconsin cheese and Buy America provisions, Baldwin rode a wave of personal and political enthusiasm to win her second term.
Baldwin tweeted, “We did it. Together, we took on the special interests and won. Now, let’s get back to the real work!”
Later, appearing in front of supporters in Madison, Baldwin said that two years ago, “experts said this race was not winnable.” She said special interests were
trying to “kick her out for standing up for Wisconsinites.”
“I had something they didn’t — you,” Baldwin said to cheers.
Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson called Baldwin’s win “very disappointing.”
The race was historic: It was the first time two women in Wisconsin emerged as major party candidates for U.S. Senate. And the matchup gave Wisconsin voters a compelling choice between Baldwin, an unabashed liberal from Madison, and Vukmir, a conservative state senator from Brookfield.
At the outset of the race, Baldwin’s re-election was by no means assured.
She had to navigate the state’s changing political winds in the wake of Trump’s surprising victory in Wisconsin in 2016.
And early on, she had to deal with outside political money that was pouring in the state as early as 2017, as thirdparty conservative groups tried to soften her up long before voters were paying close attention to the race.
“I’m just going to wear this like a badge of honor,” Baldwin said of the spending by the likes of the Koch brothers political network and Illinois businessman Richard Uihlein. “They have figured out that I’m not afraid to stand up to them because I’m fighting for Wisconsinites.”
In Vukmir, Baldwin faced a scrappy competitor and seasoned grassroots campaigner.
A nurse, mother of two and longtime legislator from suburban Milwaukee, Vukmir defeated U.S. Marine veteran and political newcomer Kevin Nicholson in a bruising mid-August primary. She campaigned on “Bringing the Wisconsin Way to Washington,” vowing to build on GOP reforms in the state that she said would work to bring results in the nation’s capital.
But after taking a primary that centered around which candidate was the true conservative, Vukmir had trouble broadening her coalition in the general election.
She also had a small window to raise the necessary funds to take on Baldwin.
Through mid-October, Baldwin raised $29 million, while Vukmir raised a little more than $5 million.
Health care was the key flash point in the race. Baldwin backed the Affordable Care Act, while Vukmir sought to repeal and replace the law known as Obamacare.
Baldwin warned that Vukmir could be the potential deciding U.S. Senate vote on killing the law. She also claimed that Vukmir did the bidding of insurance companies.
Baldwin made the case that if the law went down, people with pre-existing medical conditions would no longer be guaranteed health insurance, a message that was then hammered home in campaign commercials featuring Wisconsinites who had illnesses.
In their first debate, Vukmir dramatically countered Baldwin by declaring that she would “fall in front of a truck before I would let people go without coverage for pre-existing conditions.”
She also said that Baldwin’s support for “Medicare-for-all” would lead to “chaos for all.”
Vukmir pressed Baldwin hard on the 4-year-old opioid scandal at the Tomah Veterans Affairs Medical Center. In one ad, Vukmir said of Baldwin: “You knew about the opioid crisis at the Tomah VA, and you did nothing.”
Republicans had accused Baldwin of sitting on her hands while veterans were being given dangerous amounts of painkillers. She acknowledged her staff erred and in the wake of the scandal pushed for reforms at the VA.
Baldwin successfully pushed for passage of a law that was named after Jason Simcakoski, a U.S. Marine veteran who died at the facility. During the campaign, Simcakoski’s parents and widow endorsed Baldwin.
Baldwin, who has been in public life for decades, revealed more of herself in this campaign than she had previously.
For the first time, Baldwin openly discussed her late mother Joan Bin Rella’s addiction to narcotics and mental health challenges, sharing the story with others whose families have been burdened by a loved one’s addiction.
“It was harder to make the decision to talk about it than starting to talk about it,” Baldwin told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
A Baldwin ad focused on this painful chapter in her family’s life.
There were other campaign spots for Baldwin, including one focused on federal regulations on cheese-making and others that stressed her support for Buy America provisions to make sure that U.S.-made iron and steel were used in some federal water projects.
The Buy America push was a way for Baldwin to connect with Trump voters in the Fox Valley and the northern part of the state.
But most of Baldwin’s ads were about health care. And the ad that was her closing argument featured Wisconsinites discussing affordable health care, Buy America, the opioid epidemic and veterans’ issues.