Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin will win reelection in Wisconsin, CNN projects

Sen. Tammy Baldwin will win reelection in Wisconsin, CNN projects, in a victory for Senate Democrats trying to defend the so-called blue wall states despite losing them at the presidential level and having already lost their majority in the chamber.

Sen. Tammy Baldwin will win reelection in Wisconsin, CNN projects, in a victory for Senate Democrats trying to defend the so-called blue wall states despite losing them at the presidential level and having already lost their majority in the chamber. Baldwin is projected defeat Republican Eric Hovde in a race that attracted a late flurry of attention after initially appearing less competitive than a few other states where Democrats were on defense. Baldwin will be returning for a third term to a dramatically shifted Senate. Republicans are currently projected to control 52 seats next year, having flipped West Virginia, Ohio and Montana. CNN has not yet projected the other “blue wall” Senate races – in Pennsylvania and Michigan – as of Wednesday afternoon. Republicans came home late to Hovde, but Democrats had worked to define him early, seizing on some of his controversial comments to paint him as a California banker who didn’t have Wisconsin voters’ best interest at heart. (The CEO of Sunwest Bank owns a home in Laguna Beach, California, but was born and raised in the Badger State.) Democrats also leaned into the issue of abortion to pick up nontraditional Democratic voters. Hovde, who’s also CEO of a prominent Madison-based development company bearing his name, poured millions of dollars into his campaign and had significant outside firepower from GOP groups. But Baldwin – a well-known incumbent first elected to the Senate in 2012 after seven terms in the House – raised substantial money that also allowed her to reserve advertising time at the more favorable candidate rate. Her campaign attacked Hovde, for example, for saying that most nursing home patients aren’t in a condition to vote, while touting her work in the Senate, including efforts to pass the PACT Act, which expands health care benefits for veterans exposed to burn pits.