Dylan Brogan
Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch urges Republicans early Wednesday not to give up hope on the governor's race. Moments later, it was called for Democrat Tony Evers.
Gov. Scott Walker never made it to his campaign party. The crowd at the Ingleside Hotel in Pewaukee thinned out as Tuesday night become Wednesday morning. The die-hards watching the results loyally cheered every time Walker’s tally jumped ahead of state schools Superintendent Tony Evers as the race seesawed back and forth.
With 98 percent of precincts reporting, Walker was up by 89 votes and his supporters hoped he would pull it out. Spirits remained high even as it became clear that nearly 50,000 absentee ballots from Milwaukee — a Democratic stronghold — had yet to be counted.
But an audible gasp rang out when it was broadcast that Walker had received 7,000 of those votes while Evers nabbed 38,000. A moment later, the Walker campaign abruptly cut the audio and the ballroom went quiet.
“I guess we lost, huh?” one woman at the party belted out, shattering the silence. No one responded.
A minute later, Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch attempted to dispatch the notion that defeat was at hand.
“The fight is not over,” Kleefisch said. “This race is a dead-heat. It’s truly too close to call…. This morning we are preparing for a recount.”
Twenty minutes later, the Associated Press called the race for Evers. By then, all of Walker’s supporters had left.
It wasn’t until Wednesday afternoon that Walker finally conceded.
In a statement, his campaign wrote that after inquiring about the additional ballots in Milwaukee it was determined “that any change in the result would not be significant enough to determine the outcome of the election, despite its close margin and questions about how the city of Milwaukee executed its election night operations.”
“Thanks to Tony Evers for his gracious comments on our call today,” wrote Walker in the statement. “I offered the full support of my staff and our cabinet as he begins the transition process.”
Dane County and Madison turned out in unprecedented fashion Tuesday. The Madison clerk’s office reports a 92.9 percent turnout — shattering the previous record for a midterm. Dane County turnout hit a record 88 percent.
Only the town of Dane, population 968, stood with Walker in Dane County. But even there, Walker scraped by with just 53 percent of the vote. Evers received 3,000 more votes in Dane County than Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton did in 2016.
Evers also cranked out more votes in Milwaukee County than Walker’s two previous gubernatorial opponents, too.
Walker won a majority of the state’s 72 counties. He did slightly better in some rural counties than in past elections. But in the Fox Valley, his margin of victory shrank. In Kenosha County — where Walker narrowly won in 2010 and 2014 — he lost by 3,000 votes. Walker won Grant County in all three of his previous elections. Not this time.
In Walker’s stronghold — the counties around Milwaukee — he underperformed. In 2014, Walker won Waukesha County with 72.5 percent. This year, he managed 66.2 percent. Evers made gains for his party in the western counties of Eau Claire, La Crosse, Sauk, Iowa, Green and Rock.
Conservative commentator Charlie Sykes, a vocal critic of President Donald Trump, says Walker is a victim of a Trump backlash.
“Think about what he survived. He survived a recall, he survived protests. This is his fourth election. What’s different about this one? The economy has never been better so it’s got to be Trump,” Sykes says. “It’s an end of an era. The end of Republican dominance.”
U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, a Republican, says he has a “hard time imagining” voters who pulled the lever for Walker and also, presumably with her big win, U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin.
“When I was on the ballot with Walker [in 2010] we were within 2,000 votes. I thought it would be a similar type of dynamic playing out here,” Johnson said at the party. “The state is on the right path. I have no idea why anyone would even consider changing the administration with such success. I don’t understand that thinking.”
Waukesha County Executive Paul Farrow — who served in the Assembly and Senate under Walker — is unsure how Evers will govern with Republicans still firmly in charge of the Legislature.
“He’s going to have to work with us,” Farrow said. “So you’re not going to see many of the reforms that are in place right now changing because the majority that put them there, are still there in their positions.
“Tony doesn’t have a plan for what he’ll do once he’s in office,” he added. “I haven’t heard anything about what he wants to do in terms of workforce development. He’s talked about some education ideas but nothing concrete. I’m grateful we have Republicans in the Legislature to keep things going. Hopefully they can help the governor learn. There’s more to this than just education.”
U.S. Rep. Glenn Grothman — who won re-election — said we likely haven’t heard the last of Scott Walker.
“Robin Vos and [Senate Majority Leader] Scott Fitzgerald know how to run campaigns. I wish they had run the governor’s,” Grothman said. “Walker has been such a dominating political figure in the state for over 20 years. It’s hard to imagine him just disappearing.”
Editor's note: This story was updated to include Gov. Scott Walker's statement conceding the race.
