Welcome to our weekly DC Wrap, where we write about Wisconsin’s congressional delegation. Sign up here to receive the newsletter directly.

Quotes of the week

Democrats tried to lock him up, but the American people spoke up. It’s time for Attorney General Garland, Jack Smith, Alvin Bragg, and Fani Willis to END their politically-motivated lawfare against President Donald Trump.
– U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, R-Minocqua, in a post on X after Donald Trump won the presidential election. 

You know that 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 interests at heart.
– U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Madison, on Trump’s return to the White House. 

This week’s news

— U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson’s pick to lead the new GOP Senate majority was defeated this week as U.S. Sen. John Thune, of South Dakota, was elected to lead the chamber.

Thune was elected to replace longtime GOP Senate leader Mitch McConnell yesterday during a private meeting of senators. He beat U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, of Florida, and U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, of Texas, in a secret ballot.

Johnson, R-Oshkosh, had publicly backed Scott for the role. His office did not return requests for comment following Scott’s defeat.

Ahead of Thune’s win, Johnson said President-elect Donald Trump would need Scott “to shepherd his bold agenda through the U.S. Senate!” 

Johnson also reposted former Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s post on X advocating for Scott as majority leader. In the post, Carlson said Thune and Cornyn “hate Trump” and called Cornyn “an angry liberal whose politics are indistinguishable from Liz Cheney’s.” 

Meanwhile, in the House, Republicans nominated Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to lead the lower chamber. 

— Trump announced former U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, who has publicly clashed with U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden, R-Prairie du Chien, as his pick for attorney general. 

Gaetz, R-Fla., who resigned from Congress yesterday, helped lead an effort to unseat former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who Van Orden supported as speaker. Van Orden has called Gaetz, “tubby,”  “a little bitch” and compared Gaetz’s appearance at the RNC to that of an “AI powered inflatable sex doll.” 

Van Orden in a statement to WisPolitics said “I support the president” and did not address his past comments about Gaetz.  

U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Oshkosh, also weighed in, telling one Washington, D.C., reporter Gaetz is an “interesting pick.” 

Johnson praised Trump for the speed with which he is announcing staff for his administration, calling Trump’s choices “smart people and intelligent people, people of real accomplishment.” 

The House Ethics Committee is currently investigating Gaetz for allegations of sexual misconduct, and the U.S. Department of Justice conducted a sex trafficking probe into Gaetz but did not file charges against him. The congressman has denied any wrongdoing.

U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore, D-Milwaukee, in response to Trump’s announcement said “P. Diddy celebrates Trump pick for Attorney General,” referencing the hip hop star currently facing sex trafficking and racketeering charges. 

— GOP U.S. Senate candidate Eric Hovde declined to concede this week as he raised claims about the integrity of Wisconsin’s elections that mirrored false charges Trump made following his 2020 loss.

Baldwin spokesperson Andrew Mamo said Hovde had “stooped as low as a politician can go” by “sowing doubt about our very democracy.”

“Leaders on both sides of the aisle should condemn the lies he’s spreading and the pathetic campaign he continues to run. Tammy Baldwin has won this race and there is only one thing for Eric Hovde to do: concede,” Mamo said.

Baldwin had a 29,116-vote edge on Hovde in unofficial returns, and The Associated Press called the race for her last week. That is within the margin that allows a second-place candidate to seek a recount, though Hovde would have to shoulder the cost. 

County canvasses must submit their final results to the Elections Commission by Nov. 19. Many counties complete that work before the deadline, and a candidate has three days after the final canvass is turned in to request a recount.

In a more than 4-minute video that Hovde posted on X, he made a series of claims about the election, including some that have already been debunked. He said some of his supporters had encouraged him to challenge the results, and he is waiting for the final information to come in before deciding how to proceed.

Among other things, Hovde insisted it was “improbable” that Baldwin was backed on nearly 90% of the absentee ballots tallied by Milwaukee’s central count. Hovde said that didn’t follow the patterns of same-day voting in Milwaukee.

Dems have long favored absentee voting, particularly by mail, more than Republicans, and longtime GOP redistricting consultant Joe Handrick on Election Day predicted Milwaukee’s central count would swing the results in Dems’ favor significantly. He posted on X that day that Dem presidential nominee Kamala Harris would pick up more than 67,000 votes on Donald Trump once the Milwaukee central count numbers came in.

Hovde also claimed there are almost 8 million “registered” voters on Wisconsin’s rolls even though there are only 3.5 million active voters. The Elections Commission has frequently refuted that claim, noting the statewide list includes inactive voters and the agency can’t delete those records. The agency also has noted an inactive voter record can’t be used to cast a vote, and those people don’t appear on the poll books used for elections.

Hovde’s other claims included that in some Milwaukee precincts, turnover was more than 150% of registered voters. Election officials have long noted that Wisconsin has same-day registration, which can produce results where the number of ballots tallied in a precinct exceeds the amount of registered voters heading into an election.

Hovde also questioned how same-day registration in Milwaukee surged on a rainy day and how the vote for Harris didn’t drop off there as much as it did in other large cities.

“While I’m deeply concerned, asking for a recount is a serious decision that requires careful consideration,” Hovde said. “Further, there are meaningful limits on a recount because they don’t look at the integrity of a ballot.”

Hovde and his campaign had been silent since a social media post Wednesday morning last week in which he wrote he was watching the final results come in and expressed disappointment “that the Democrats’ effort to siphon votes with a fraudulent candidate had a significant impact on the race.”

At the time, America First Candidate Thomas Leager, who Dems helped get on the ballot, had more votes than the margin between Hovde and Baldwin. But according to unofficial results, Baldwin’s lead stood at 29,116 votes, while Leager had 28,724.

Hovde on Tuesday again raised complaints about Leager, as well as Phil Anderson, a longtime Libertarian activist and frequent candidate for statewide office who ran under the Disrupt the Corruption banner as an independent this year. Anderson had 42,344 votes, according to unofficial returns.

Ahead of the election, Hovde said he would accept the election results and told the Milwaukee Rotary Club last month, “We have to stop every time one side loses an election saying the election was stolen.”

On Tuesday, Hovde insisted if neither third party candidate had been on the ballot, “the outcome would be different today.”

“It is one thing to lie to voters through TV ads like I’m a Californian or I want to ban abortion or beer. It is another to fund and organize a false candidate to manipulate voters,” Hovde said.

Republicans assisted Green Jill Stein and activist Cornel West in their presidential bids, hoping they would siphon votes away from Harris. Meanwhile, a group formed in mid-October ran ads attacking Baldwin over her support for Israel. The group has yet to file reports with the FEC detailing its funding, but Dems have said they believe Republicans were behind the effort.

— U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden, R-Prairie du Chien won reelection to a second term representing western Wisconsin’s 3rd CD, in one of the most closely watched races in the Badger State. 

The Cook Political Report rated the district as a “lean Republican” seat ahead of the election. Van Orden won reelection with 51.4% of the vote, according to unofficial results. 

“I’m truly thankful and humbled the people of Wisconsin’s Third Congressional District decided to send me back to Congress so I can continue my bipartisan work for western Wisconsin,” Van Orden said in a statement. 

He pledged to continue working to stop the “southern border crisis,” “tackle rising costs” and “ensure life is more affordable for everyday families. 

Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil, R-Janesville, won reelection to the 1st CD and De Pere businessman Tony Wied secured the open 8th CD for Republicans. 

Steil won with 54.1% of the vote against former Dem U.S. Rep. Peter Barca while Wied won with 57.4% against Dem OB-GYN Kristin Lyerly. 

Easily cruising to reelection were: U.S. Reps. Mark Pocan, D-Town of Vermont, Gwen Moore, D-Milwaukee, Glenn Grothman, R-Glenbeulah, Tom Tiffany, R-Minocqua, and Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau.

That means Republicans maintain a 6-2 partisan margin in the Wisconsin congressional delegation.

See full coverage of last week’s election at Battleground Wisconsin. 

— U.S. Rep. Tony Wied, R-De Pere, was officially sworn into office on Tuesday in Washington, D.C., and started voting later that night.                                            

Wied, who won both the general election and a special election, will serve the rest of former GOP U.S. Rep. Mike Gallagher’s term and a full term starting in January. Gallagher resigned in April.

While the election results have not been finalized yet, Wied was able to vote because the state Election Commission sent preliminary results to the House and, since there was no opposition from Democrats, the House moved to swear him in.

In a brief speech Tuesday in front of the House, Wied said he ran for Congress “to solve America’s toughest problems,” some of which he said were increasing crime rates, high inflation and a border crisis.

“Now is the time to bring Wisconsin common sense to Washington to lower costs, secure our border and rein in out-of-control government spending,” Wied said.

The businessman is in the process of hiring staff and working to get it done as soon as possible, according to a spokesperson for Wied’s campaign.

— Strategists from opposite ends of the political spectrum on WisPolitics’ Capitol Chats podcast said they didn’t expect Trump to build on his 2020 margins in rural Wisconsin in the Nov. 5 election. But then he did on the way to his narrow win in Wisconsin.

Listen to the episode featuring GOP strategist Bill McCoshen and Dem strategist Joe Zepecki here. 

— Dems’ slide in Wisconsin’s 53 majority Hispanic wards accelerated in 2024, while their erosion in predominantly Black units was less dramatic, according to Marquette Law School research.

Read about the analysis here. 

— Reince Priebus, former Trump chief of staff and ex-chairman of the Republican National Committee, says he’ll be involved but won’t get ”too much in the matrix” during the second Trump administration.

“I’ll be involved in things here and there,” president and chief strategist for the law firm Michael Best & Friedrich told WISN’s “UpFront,” produced in partnership with WisPolitics. “But I’ve got a good life outside the White House, and I’m happy with what I’m doing. But I’m also always involved. You could say I try to keep a balance.”

Watch the show here. 

Posts of the week

ICYMI

The Hill: Republicans win House, delivering Trump a trifecta

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin GOP says Hovde has not requested funds for Senate recount

WPR: Trump made big gains on Wisconsin’s college campuses in 2024 election

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Mass deportation, ending DACA: How would Trump’s policies affect Wisconsin immigrants?

Spectrum News 1: Republican Tony Wied starts new member orientation in Washington

 

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