BY TINA L. SCOTT
EDITOR
On March 25, 2024, Tammy Baldwin, incumbent Class 1 (junior) U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin, began a five-day campaign tour she dubbed the “Dairyland Tour,” targeting many areas that have historically leaned more Republican. Baldwin, who is a Democrat, was first elected to the U.S. Senate in Nov. 2012 and made history as the first openly gay member elected to the U.S. Senate and Wisconsin’s first woman to serve in the U.S. Senate.
Incumbent Baldwin is running for re-election this fall and currently the only candidate running on the Democratic ticket. She is slated to be on the ballot in the Aug. 13, 2024, Primary Election but is thus far running unopposed within the party. The filing deadline to run for the position is June 3, 2024, so there is still a possibility another candidate may step forward by that date, and in that case, such a candidate would appear on the Aug. primary ballot to run against Baldwin to choose the Democratic candidate on the ballot in the Nov. 6, 2024, election to fill her seat on the U.S. Senate.
The other candidates who will run as opponents on that Nov. 6, 2024, ballot will remain up in the air until the results of the Aug. 13 Primary Election are in. As of this writing, thus far there are seven candidates who will be on the Aug. 13 Primary ballot competing to be the Republican candidate on the Nov. 6 ballot. While more candidates also have until June 3 to file, currently the following individuals in the running to win in the Republican primary with the ultimate goal of competing for the U.S. Senate position are: Kyle Corrigan, Matthew Harvey, Dan Helm, Eric Hovde, Stacey Klein, Rejani Raveendran, and Patrick Schaefer-Wicke.
There are also three additional candidates currently slated to run against the winners of both the Democratic and Republican August Primary winners on the Nov. 6, ballot: Scott Aubart is running as the American Independent Party candidate, Phillip Anderson as the Libertarian candidate, and Joshua Harrington with no party affiliation. Again, more candidates could announce right up to the June 3, 2024, filing deadline.
For her part, Baldwin wanted to get out in advance of June to start campaigning and made a five-day sweep of communities throughout 19 Wisconsin counties, including Lincoln County, from March 25-29. The other counties visited include Douglas, Bayfield, Ashland, Oneida, Wood, Marathon, Waupaca, Outagamie, Winnebago, Dodge, Jefferson, Green, Richland, Vernon, La Crosse, Juneau, Sauk, and Columbia counties. She started in Superior and traveled 1,400 miles start to finish, her campaign officials said.
On day two of her campaign tour, March 26, Baldwin made two pitstops in Merrill, touring Weinbrenner Shoe Company mid-afternoon, followed by a meet-and-greet at the Sawmill Brewing Company afterward.
“On my statewide, five-day Dairyland Tour, I met with Wisconsinites from red, blue, and purple, rural, urban, and suburban communities all over the state to listen to them and hear about the most pressing issues they’re facing,” Baldwin said in a statement following her trip. “I’m taking everything I heard right back to Washington to find solutions for our families and keep moving America’s Dairyland forward.”
If re-elected in November, the Madison (Dane County) native would begin her third term as U.S. Senator in 2025. (U.S. Senators serve six-year terms, and elections are staggered so both Senators from a state are not being replaced in the same year/election.) Wisconsin’s other current U.S. Senator is Republican Ron Johnson, who was re-elected for his third term back in 2022. His term ends Jan. 3, 2029.
