GOP candidate Tom Tiffany, a state senator whom President Donald Trump has repeatedly promoted on Twitter, easily won the special election last night in Wisconsin’s seventh congressional district held by Representative Sean Duffy, who retired last fall.

Tiffany won by a near-fifteen point margin. With one hundred percent of the precincts reporting this morning, Tiffany won the seat 57.2-42.8 against challenger Tricia Zunker, Wausau School Board president and justice on the Supreme Court of the Ho-Chunk Nation. Zunker was hoping to become the first Native American elected to Congress from Wisconsin and had pulled in an endorsement from Senator Elizabeth Warren.

There was uncertainty over whether holding a special election in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic would affect the outcome. Election clerks said they were prepared, and about twenty percent of registered voters voted absentee. The 18,800-square-mile district hasn’t been badly hit by the virus, having had under two percent of all positive cases in the state.

This Wisconsin district is one that Obama won back in 2008 and 2012, but the district has leaned heavily GOP in recent years. Trump won Wisconsin by less than a point in 2016, but carried this rural district by a full twenty points. The district is one that Trump will need to once again win big if he hopes to carry Wisconsin in November.

Wisconsin Democratic Party spokeswoman Courtney Beyer said the results showed a “drastic swing” for Democrats—even though Zunker lost by nearly fifteen points. Tiffany rejected the Democrats’ argument that the smaller margin was a sign that Trump’s support was waning. “Anytime you lose by 14 points, I don’t think that’s a moral victory,” Tiffany said. “This is a decisive victory here.”

Trump campaign spokeswoman Anna Kelly issued a statement about the Wisconsin win, stating, “Tonight was a win for President Trump and Tom Tiffany that demonstrates the enthusiasm behind our president across Wisconsin.”

This piece was written by PoliZette Staff on May 13, 2020. It originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.

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