Sen. Tammy Baldwin wins re-election in Wisconsin over Republican Eric Hovde

Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., fended off a challenge from Republican Eric Hovde on Tuesday, NBC News projects, winning a third six-year term in a critical battleground state.

Hovde, an independently wealthy businessman who ran unsuccessfully for the Senate in 2012, had loaned $13 million of his own money to his campaign and raised a few million more.

But Hovde, who was endorsed by former President Donald Trump, fell short against Baldwin, who benefited from incumbency and had amassed more than $36 million this cycle in preparation for a hard-fought campaign in a purple state.

Baldwin defeated Hovde even as Trump carried Wisconsin over Vice President Kamala Harris in the presidential race.

In campaign ads, Baldwin touted her work expanding health care and benefits for veterans exposed to burn pits, while knocking Hovde as a banking executive from Orange County, California, even though he was born and raised in Wisconsin.

Baldwin was first elected to the Senate in 2012, replacing retiring Democratic Sen. Herb Kohl. In defeating Tommy Thompson, the former health and human services secretary and former Wisconsin governor, she made history as the first openly LGBTQ person elected to the Senate and the first woman elected to the Senate representing Wisconsin.

She easily won re-election in 2018 by 11 percentage points. Meanwhile, Trump and Joe Biden each carried Wisconsin by less than 1 percentage point in the last two White House races, respectively.

During a decadeslong political career that took her from local government and the state Legislature in Madison to the House and Senate in Washington, Baldwin has never lost an election.

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She is currently a member of the Senate Democrats’ leadership team, serving as caucus secretary. Her Senate seat has remained in Democratic control since 1957, when William Proxmire won a special election after the death of Republican Sen. Joseph McCarthy.