Wisconsin GOP's Eric Hovde concedes Senate race to Tammy Baldwin

Wisconsin GOP Senate candidate Eric Hovde conceded his race to Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin on Monday, saying he did not want to “add to political strife through a contentious recount.”

Hovde was down about about 29,000 votes from Baldwin, putting the margin at less than a percentage point, The Associated Press reported. The vote margin allowed him to request a recount that he would have had to pay for himself. Baldwin declared victory in the Senate race two days after Election Day.

"The results from election night were disappointing, particularly in light of the last-minute absentee ballots that were dropped in Milwaukee at 4 a.m., flipping the outcome. There are many troubling issues around these absentee ballots and their timing," Hovde said in a video posted on X, referencing a statement he gave last Tuesday.

“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 added. “As a result, and my desire to not add to political strife through a contentious recount, I've decided to concede the election.”

Last week, Hovde posted a video on X about overnight ballot dumps after Election Day.

“I was shocked by what unfolded on Election Night,” he said. “At 1 a.m., I was receiving calls of congratulations and, based on the models, it appeared I would win the Senate race. Then, at 4 a.m., Milwaukee reported approximately 108,000 absentee ballots with Senator Baldwin receiving nearly 90 percent of those ballots. Statistically, this outcome seems improbable, as it didn’t match the patterns from same-day voting in Milwaukee, where I had received 22 percent of the votes."

“Since last Wednesday, numerous parties reached out to me about voting inconsistencies such as certain precincts in Milwaukee having turnout of 150 percent of registered voters, and in some cases, over 200 percent,” Hovde explained, later adding that “this was accomplished by same-day voter registration that surged by almost 50 percent on a rainy day.”