Wisconsin: Baldwin Tops Tommy Thompson

Bridget Johnson

November 06, 2012 9:21 PM

Liberal Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D) defeated former Gov. Tommy Thompson, a popular Republican and former Health and Human Services secretary, for an open Senate seat in Wisconsin today.

With 72 percent of precincts reporting, Baldwin had 50.5 percent to Thompson’s 46.9 percent.

President Obama stomped Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) here in 2008, but GOP Gov. Scott Walker’s survival against a union-led recall effort and a thinner poll margin favoring Obama suggested that Republicans had a reasonable pickup opportunity here.

Baldwin becomes the first openly gay senator in U.S. history.

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Bridget Johnson is a veteran journalist whose news articles and analyses have run in dozens of news outlets across the globe. Bridget first came to Washington to be online editor at The Hill, where she wrote The World from The Hill column on foreign policy. Previously she was an opinion writer and editorial board member at the Rocky Mountain News and nation/world news columnist at the Los Angeles Daily News.

Bridget is a Senior Fellow specializing in terrorism analysis at the Haym Salomon Center. She is a Senior Risk Analyst for Gate 15, a homeland security risk management firm in the Beltway. She is an NPR contributor and has contributed to USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, National Review Online, Politico, New York Daily News, The Jerusalem Post, The Hill, New York Observer, Washington Times, RealClearWorld and more, and has myriad television and radio credits including Al-Jazeera and SiriusXM. Bridget is Washington Editor for PJ Media.