Democrats Score Special Election Upset In Wisconsin District Trump Won Big
A court had to order Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) to call the special election because he tried to block it.
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By Amanda Terkel
06/12/2018 10:46 pm ET Updated 6 hours ago
Wisconsin Democrats scored a major upset victory Tuesday night, winning a state Senate seat in a district that went for Donald Trump by double digits in 2016.
Caleb Frostman defeated state Rep. Andre Jacque (R) for the open seat in District 1 that was previously held by state Sen. Frank Lasee (R), who resigned to take a job in Gov. Scott Walker’s administration. Frostman will be on the ballot again in November for the regular election.
Republicans held on to a state Assembly seat in District 42 that also held a special election Tuesday.
Although Frostman’s term is short, his win is a huge victory for the Democratic Party. Not only was the seat held by a Republican, but Trump defeated Democratic rival Hillary Clinton there by 17 points in the 2016 presidential election. Trump also won the state of Wisconsin overall.
“Tonight is a good night for Wisconsin Democrats,” said state party chair Martha Laning. “We continued a winning streak by flipping a red seat blue and electing Caleb Frostman to the state Senate, a 21-point swing from Trump’s 2016 performance.”
Frostman’s win is especially sweet for Democrats because Walker tried to prevent Tuesday’s contests from taking place to begin with. Both the vacancies were created when Walker tapped the incumbents to join his administration in December.
State law requires the governor to call special elections for vacancies that take place before May in an election year, but Walker had refused to do so. He planned to keep them vacant until the regular elections in November. The National Democratic Redistricting Committee, a group led by former Attorney General Eric Holder, sued Walker ― and won.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/caleb-frostman-wisconsin_us_5b2079ade4b09d7a3d7845e9
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