Full primary results via Politico – CLICK HERE
WAUKESHA, Wis. — In the final week of his primary campaign, Tommy G. Thompson, the 70-year-old former governor of Wisconsin, performed 50 push-ups for a local newspaper editorial board to prove he was spry enough for the Senate post he is seeking. He has barnstormed the state for months, visiting with voters and raking in high-profile endorsements for a candidacy that, once presumed dominant, had increasingly felt the encroachment of younger challengers for the Republican nomination.
Mr. Thompson’s political muscles appeared strong enough at his election victory gathering here Tuesday night, as he got the nod from his party in a statewide primary race that pitted him against three fellow conservatives and splintered the Tea Party vote.
“People doubted whether or not I had the stamina,” Mr. Thompson said to a packed room of supporters at a hotel here, adding that he has been “shaking hands like I’ve never shaken before.”
The victory makes Mr. Thompson, who was elected governor four times and served as health and human services secretary under President George W. Bush, an outlier among the many Republican establishment candidates across the country who have been defeated by fresher faces in recent years.
Mr. Thompson’s strongest challenge came from Eric Hovde, a hedge fund manager and political novice who has spent millions of his own money on the race. Trailing behind them were Mark Neumann, a former congressman, and Jeff Fitzgerald, the Wisconsin Assembly speaker.
Mr. Thompson will face Representative Tammy Baldwin, a Democrat, in the general election, which many in the Republican Party consider critical to their efforts to take control of the Senate.
Tuesday was a good night for two establishment candidates in Florida, as Representative John L. Mica, a 10-term congressman who is chairman of the House Transportation Committee, fought off a challenge from a fellow Republican, Representative Sandy Adams, the Tea Party pick, in a closely watched primary election in the key swing state.
Mr. Mica and Ms. Adams squared off after redistricting made them residents of the same suburban Orlando district, which is very conservative. Mr. Mica will face Jason Kendall, a Democrat who is a sales manager at a marketing firm.
Also in Florida, Representative Connie Mack handily beat a former congressman, Dave Weldon, and a retired Army colonel and Tea Party favorite, Mike McCalister, to challenge Senator Bill Nelson, a Democrat, in November.
Word that the Senate seat in Wisconsin would become open came last year when Herb Kohl, a Democrat and popular incumbent, announced he would not seek a fifth term. Since then, Mr. Thompson, whose critics tried to cast him as not conservative enough for the contemporary Republican Party, benefited from name recognition throughout the state, leading in most polls and drawing endorsements from conservative personalities like Newt Gingrich, Herman Cain and Ted Nugent.
But the gap narrowed in the final weeks of the primary campaign. By Primary Day it was clear that a bloc of undecided Republicans — 21 percent of likely voters in the state, according to a Marquette Law School poll released last week — would have the final say.
In Kenosha, Wis., inside a building next to the town’s Civil War Museum, election officials for three wards said turnout was anemic on Tuesday, a possible hangover from a divisive — and unsuccessful — effort to oust Gov. Scott Walker. The rare recall election was held in June and dominated Wisconsin’s political bandwidth for months, polarizing the state along party lines.
“It was all you heard about,” said Irene Yde, 77. “It was really gung-ho. People didn’t like what was going on, and they got out their vote. This one, I don’t know what’s going on.”
Ms. Yde voted in the Republican primary on Tuesday, but declined to say for whom. She worried that the ugly television advertising war between candidates in the Republican primary could come back to haunt her party in November. “They seem to be digging up more trash and garbage on each other than talking about what they’re running for,” she said. “And I think it’s going to hurt them in the long run.”
Democrats are certainly hoping that will be the case and contend that candidates moving to the right in an attempt to woo Wisconsin’s most conservative voters will send some moderate voters in the opposite direction. (continue reading)