Nearly 2 weeks post-election, Eric Hovde concedes in US Senate race

 

MADISON Wis. (CBS 58) -- Nearly two weeks after the election, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Eric Hovde has conceded after his narrow defeat in Wisconsin.

In a six-minute concession video posted on "X", Hovde said acknowledge his defeat after previously leaving open the possibility of a recount.

"A request for recount would serve no purpose because it would be recounting the same ballots regardless of their integrity," Hovde said. "As a result, and my desire to not add to political strife through a contentious recount, I've decided to concede the election."

For a second time, Hovde spread misleading claims about his election defeat such as pointing blame at the City of Milwaukee for late-night tallies of absentee ballots. Milwaukee finished counting over 100,000 ballots around 4 a.m. which ultimately gave Baldwin enough votes to take the lead.

"There are so many troubling issues around these absentee ballots and their timing," Hovde said. 

Ann Jacobs, the Democratic chair of the bipartisan state Elections Commission, refuted Hovde's claims as did other election officials last week. 

"These are not legitimate questions," Jacob said. "These are falsehoods being paraded out there."

Until lawmakers pass legislation allowing clerks to process ballots earlier than Election Day, Jacobs said large cities like Milwaukee will always take longer to report election results. 

"It's unfortunate because everyone knew that this was going to happen, has happened and will keep happening until the Legislature passes a Monday processing bill."

Bipartisan legislation to allow clerks to begin processing absentee ballots the Monday before an election died in the Senate last year. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have expressed interest in reintroducing the 'Monday processing' bill next year or adding revisions with hopes of making it to Gov. Tony Evers desk.  

Hovde also continued to partially blame his loss on Thomas Leager, a third-party candidate on the ballot who ran on an American First slogan. Leager disputed Hovde's claims he was a "plant" by Democrats to try and take votes from him in an interview with CBS 58. 

The Republican multimillionaire businessman also said he's unsure what his political future holds. Hovde added he will take a "much-needed break." 

Last week, Hovde broke his silence for the first time after the Associated Press called the race for Democratic Senator Tammy Baldwin the day after the election. Baldwin won by 29,116 votes or 0.9 percentage points, according to unofficial results.

Hovde was within the vote margin to request a recount, however he would have had to pay for it.