Ron Johnson Bests Progressive Icon Russ Feingold in Wisconsin Senate Race

Once again, Feingold falls to a Republican wave.

Michael P. King/Wisconsin State Journal via AP

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


Republican Sen. Ron Johnson held onto his Senate seat in Wisconsin, riding the Republican wave that swept the Midwest Tuesday night. Johnson led the race with 52 percent of the vote when the networks called it around 11 p.m. The race is one of the surprises of the night as Donald Trump overperformed the polls and appeared to be winning the Badger State.

The contest was a rematch from 2010, when Johnson defeated three-term Democrat Russ Feingold, a progressive icon. This time, Feingold was vying for his old seat but was again defeated by a GOP onslaught. Heading into Tuesday, the Real Clear Politics average had Feingold ahead by 2.7 points.

Despite being the incumbent, Johnson painted himself as an outsider in a year that has seen voters turning on establishment politicians. Johnson trailed for much of the race but began to close on Feingold in the fall. That’s when outside money began to pour money into the race, much of it to pull Johnson over the finish line. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, more than $14 million was spent to defeat Feingold and more than $8 million against Johnson. In the final weeks of the race, outside groups backed by progressives and conservatives poured money into the contest, including Americans for Prosperity, which is funded by the Koch brothers.

Despite the outside boost, it’s likely Trump and his popularity with white voters pulled Johnson to victory.

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate