GOP Senate candidate Eric Hovde refuses to concede election in Wisconsin

All the major news networks have declared Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., the victor in her re-election race, but her GOP opponent is refusing to concede. Eric Hovde, a businessman and bank executive, is claiming that because of alleged voting irregularities and the presence of a right-wing, pro-gun third party candidate, the election result was not legitimate.

That third-party candidate, Thomas Leager, had ties to the plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. His campaign received some funding from Democratic donors in what Hovde said was an effort to siphon votes from him. While it's a tactic that the GOP has also used to prop up candidates on the opponents' left flank, Democrats have not used that as a basis to challenge an election result.

“We’re certainly disappointed that the Democrats’ effort to siphon votes with a fraudulent candidate had a significant impact on the race, with those votes making up more than the entire margin of the race right now,” Hovde said in a press release. “We will continue to monitor returns and make sure that every vote is counted.”

He also complained that he was leading in the count until a surge in absentee ballots ballots from Democratic-heavy Milwaukee tipped the balance in Baldwin's favor. Republicans have often claimed, without evidence, that Democrats overtaking them in the count is a sign that they are cheating, rather than a matter of logistics.

“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% of those ballots. Statistically, this outcome seems improbable," he said.

Baldwin hit back in an X post that accused Hovde of "spreading lies from the darkest corners of the internet to undercut our free and fair elections."

"Wisconsin voters made their voices heard. It's time for Hovde to stop this disgusting attack on our democracy and concede," she wrote.

Hovde's refusal to give in is not altogether surprising. Throughout the campaign, he pushed conspiracy theories about the election process, claiming at one point that turnout in nursing homes couldn't possibly be correct because many of its residents were near death. Despite his defiance, however, he is not yet ready to commit to demanding a recount: Based on the current gap separating him and Baldwin, Hovde's campaign, which was largely self-funded, would have to pay for that