Dem Tip McGuire says he’s hoping to see the same teamwork that helped fuel his victory in the 64th AD present when he officially is seated in the Assembly.
McGuire’s won handedly over Republican Mark Stalker to succeed former state Rep. Peter Barca in the seat.
A WisPolitics.com tally of unofficial results from Kenosha and Racine counties show McGuire won 62 percent of the vote to Stalker’s nearly 38 percent.
McGuire, addressing attendees at his election night party in Kenosha, thanked his supporters and volunteers, saying no campaign “is a solo enterprise.”
“It’s always teamwork, just like our society, just like government, just like how we make this all work,” he said, according to a video posted to his Facebook page. “And so we have teamwork right now and hopefully we’ll have teamwork moving forward as we try to accomplish the things that we talked about in this campaign: affordable health care, good schools and family supporting jobs.”
Meanwhile, Stalker praised McGuire and his campaign as “very organized,” adding he “ran a great race and got the people out on kind of a miserable day to go vote.”
He also acknowledged running a race in the Dem-leaning district was an “uphill battle,” though he also credited his staff for working hard and putting in “a strong effort.”
“At least we didn’t have just one name (on the ballot) when we went in to vote, so I got that going for us,” he told WisPolitics.com.
McGuire earlier this month won a three-way Dem primary for the seat.
His win restores Assembly Dems’ 36-63 minority in the chamber.
McGuire had a significant financial edge on Stalker, raising $125,042 between Jan. 1 and April 15. Stalker, meanwhile, pulled in $16,952 over the same period.
Gov. Tony Evers won 55.9 percent of the vote in the district in November, while U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Madison, took 61.4 percent. But Hillary Clinton took 52.5 percent there in 2016.
After many credited a jazzed up GOP base for helping conservative Brian Hagedorn win this spring’s Supreme Court race even as he was outspent, some believed Dems dedicated resources to the Assembly race to avoid the possibility of a similar upset.