Eric Hovde Concedes US Senate Race to Tammy Baldwin

Nearly two weeks after Election Day, Republican Eric Hovde has conceded his loss to Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, issuing a statement that made unsubstantiated and false claims about the results in the process.

Baldwin was declared the unofficial winner in Wisconsin’s closely watched Senate race on Nov. 6. Results compiled by The Associated Press showed Baldwin had a winning margin of 29,116 votes, or about 0.9 percent.

Hovde’s formal concession came after most county clerks throughout the state had completed their canvass of the results, which will make them official.

“Thank you for your support,” read the text of Hovde’s Monday announcement on the social media platform X. “It’s time to move on.”

But Hovde’s video was far less conciliatory in tone, claiming without evidence that there were “many troubling issues” with absentee ballots that were counted late on election night. He said he’d heard from “numerous supporters” asking him to challenge the election results.

“However, without a detailed review of all the ballots and their legitimacy, which will be difficult to obtain in the courts, a request for a recount would serve no purpose, because you will just be recounting the same ballots, regardless of their integrity,” Hovde said.

Asked for comment Monday, Baldwin’s campaign pointed to her victory speech delivered the week of the election.

“Hovde has not called,” said a spokesperson for Baldwin’s campaign Monday morning.

Arik Wolk with the Democratic Party of Wisconsin issued a statement that made reference to Hovde’s home in California, which Democrats repeatedly highlighted during the campaign.

“Now that he’s finally conceded, I wish Eric Hovde a safe trip back to California,” Wolk said.

False claims focus on Milwaukee

Hovde’s statement specifically complained about the “last minute ballots that were dropped in Milwaukee at 4 a.m.,” referring to a phenomenon that city election officials have told the public about for years.

Milwaukee is one of around 40 communities throughout the state that use a “central count” system, where absentee ballots are processed and counted at a central location instead of at each polling place. That can lead to a large batch of votes coming in later in the evening or early the next morning.

Because of the large number of voters in Milwaukee, that count takes longer than it does elsewhere. That process was delayed further this year when the city’s high-speed counting machines weren’t properly sealed on the morning of Election Day, prompting officials to restart the count that afternoon, citing an abundance of caution.

Milwaukee is typically one of the last communities to release results on Election Day, but President-elect Donald Trump complained about the delay in 2020, when he falsely claimed the election had been stolen from him.

Hovde struck a similar tone in his Monday statement.

“There are many troubling issues around these absentee ballots and their timing,” Hovde said.

Hovde first made the false assertion last week, when he posted a video to social media in which he claimed he was “deeply concerned” about Milwaukee election results. He said he was “shocked by what unfolded on election night” when votes were still being counted in Wisconsin’s largest city.

Under Wisconsin law, clerks can’t start processing and counting absentee ballots until polls open at 7:00 a.m. on Election Day. State legislators from both parties pushed a bill that would have changed that, letting clerks begin to process absentee ballots the day before the election, but it was blocked by Republican state senators.

The Milwaukee Election Commission released a statement last week refuting Hovde’s claims.

“It is both expected and routine that absentee ballots—over 100,000 in this case—are counted and reported in the late hours of Election Night due to Wisconsin’s high voter turnout and the rigorous verification standards the MEC upholds,” read the statement from the commission.

Hovde concession also criticizes third party candidate

Hovde also used his concession to again attack the candidacy of Thomas Leager, a conservative who ran under the “America First” party and received 28,724 votes, according to unofficial totals from The Associated Press.

Leager is a gun rights activist who helped organize the “Reopen Wisconsin” rally at the Wisconsin Capitol during the initial COVID-19 stay-at-home orders in 2020.

An AP investigation earlier this year found Leager had received donations from Democrats, and had been recruited to run by a group with Democratic ties.

In his Monday video, Hovde blamed Leager for his loss.

“If not for Democratic operatives placing a phony American first candidate on the ballot to deceive voters and siphon off over 28,000 votes, I would have won this race,” Hovde said Monday.

The math doesn’t bear that out, however. Even if every one of Leager’s votes had gone to Hovde, he still would have lost to Baldwin, according to unofficial totals.

Asked about the false assertion by WISN-TV, Wisconsin Elections Commission Chair Ann Jacobs, a Democrat, said she was disappointed by Hovde’s “conspiratorial complaints,” adding she “thought we left that behind in 2020.”

Jacobs noted that Hovde did not challenge Leager’s candidacy when given the chance after nomination papers were circulated earlier this year.

“And frankly, if people vote for somebody else, they get to do that,” Jacobs said. “You’re not entitled to somebody’s votes. You have to earn them.”

Eric Hovde concedes US Senate race to Tammy Baldwin was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.