MADISON — In a room full of supporters and her staff, Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., on Thursday thanked Wisconsin voters for sending her back to Washington for another six-year term.
“We did everything, everywhere, all at once,” Baldwin said with a laugh.
She won by less than 30,000 votes in the state, squeezing out a victory by winning more votes in rural areas than Vice President Kamala Harris received at the top of the Democrats’ ticket. Baldwin credited her success to the work she put into her campaign, crisscrossing the state from red to blue districts.
“I listen to people. I really listen to people,” she said.
And while Wisconsin voters chose her to represent them in U.S. Senate, they also picked Republican Donald Trump for President. Baldwin pledged to work with him.
“I will always fight for Wisconsin, and that means working with President Trump to do that, and standing up to him when he doesn't have our best interest at heart,” she said.
Baldwin said she’d keep up her fight to lower costs, make health care more affordable, and support manufacturing in the state.
One of her key supporters, Pat Raes, the president of SEIU Wisconsin, the Service Employees International Union, attended the speech. She took two weeks off to campaign and told Spectrum News that SEIU knocked on a million doors in Wisconsin.
“She has shown time after time that the working people and the people of the middle class and the low class are important, with her things like ensuring our children until the age 26 have health insurance during that most at-risk time, when they're not necessarily making the best decision, so that we have we have good social security for our parents and for us coming up in the future,” Raes said of Baldwin.
In her speech, Baldwin also promised to continue her effort to pass the Women’s Health Protection Act, which would restore abortion rights nationwide. But it’s unlikely the legislation will go anywhere with the Senate controlled by Republicans and Trump in the White House next year.
The Republican who tried to unseat her, Eric Hovde, did not respond to a request for comment.
“2024 marks a continuation of Tammy Baldwin's record of undefeated elections in Wisconsin politics,” said Ben Wikler, chairman of the Wisconsin Democratic Party.
Baldwin also thanked Wikler, her campaign’s volunteers, and the support of her family and partner.
“We did it!” she said.