Republican U.S. Senator Ron Johnson defeated Democrat Mandela Barnes in the midterm elections, keeping a GOP seat and reversing Barnes’ bid to make history as the first black senator. from Wisconsin.
The victory for Johnson, one of former President Donald Trump’s biggest backers, came after Trump narrowly lost the state to President Joe Biden two years ago.
“The votes are in,” Johnson said in an emailed statement. “There is no way mathematically for Lt. Governor Barnes to overcome his deficit of 27,374 votes. This race is over.
Barnes did not admit defeat early Wednesday. He planned a noon news conference in his hometown of Milwaukee.
“No matter what they say, we are committed to making sure every vote is counted,” Barnes campaign spokeswoman Maddy McDaniel said Wednesday morning. “We will wait and see what Wisconsin voters have decided after all of their voices are heard.”
Johnson, in an interview on WISN-AM, accused Barnes of refusing to accept the outcome of the race after promising earlier in the campaign that he would.
“It’s very clear that he has no road to victory here,” Johnson said.
The race was one of a handful of close Senate races across the country that could determine which party has majority control.
Johnson said he hoped Republicans would do better in the midterm elections, saying Democratic policies “are not good for America.”
“I’m surprised that in Wisconsin my race was so close,” Johnson said.
Barnes, the current lieutenant governor, was seeking to become Wisconsin’s first black senator. Johnson was running for a third term.
Johnson has been a prime target for Democrats in the swing state of Wisconsin. He was first elected in 2010, as part of the Tea Party wave, and won re-election in 2016.
Johnson is one of former President Donald Trump’s biggest backers. He ran this campaign trying to paint Barnes as weak on crime with a skinny resume that will be a rubber stamp for the national Democratic agenda.
Barnes, like many Democrats nationally, tried to make the abortion race, noting Johnson’s longstanding support for overturning Roe v. Wade and arguing that the millionaire Johnson was not aware of the concerns of the middle class.