Senator Ron Johnson, a right-wing Republican from Wisconsin who promoted misinformation about the Covid-19 vaccine in recent years, won reelection for a third term in one of the closest-watched Senate races in the country.
Mr Johnson, whom Wisconsin first elected in 2010, beat Democratic Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes in a tight races by 27,374 votes.
Wisconsin, which narrowly voted for Joe Biden in 2020 after it voted for Donald Trump in 2016, presented a rare opportunity for Democrats to flip a Senate seat. But Mr Barnes’s failure to do so means that Democrats succeeded in winning only one seat held by a Republican Senator when John Fetterman beat television host and physician Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania.
Mr Johnson frequently promoted misinformation about vaccines meant to prevent the spread of Covid-19. At one point, he questioned the need to vaccinate everybody.
“What is the point? If the science tells us the vaccines are 95 per cent effective” he said on a talk show last year. “So, if you have a vaccine, quite honestly, what do you care if your neighbour has one or not?”
That earned a rebuke from Dr Anthony Fauci.
“There's a pretty good reason. We have 567,000 people who've died so far in this country from this disease. That is a really, really good reason to get people vaccinated with a vaccine that you've shown is highly efficacious and quite safe,” he said on MSNBC last year. “And that's the reason for the emergency use authorisation.”
Similarly, Mr Johnson received intense scrutiny for him remarks about the January 6 riot, such as when he said it was not an “armed insurrection” but that it “teach us how you can use a flag pole” in reference to some rioters using flag poles as weapons at the Capitol.
Mr Barnes, the Democratic lieutenant governor who won his first statewide race in 2018, won his primary after his top Democratic challengers dropped out to endorse him. Initially, he led in polls, which made Democrats think he had a chance to win.
But Republicans pummeled him relentlessly with negative ads, accusing him of supporting reducing funding for police and running an ad with his face next to those of Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar.
The Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC affiliated with Senator Mitch McConnell, spent $26.4m in ads propelling Mr Johnson and pummeling Mr Barnes.
Mr Barnes’s loss comes despite the fact that Democratic Governor Tony Evers beat Republican Tim Michels for re-election. Former president Barack Obama campaigned for both men in Milwaukee and delivered a scorching rebuke of Mr Johnson’s stance on social security that received 14m views in a few days. But it proved not to be enough.
Mr Johnson’s victory means that Republicans secured two of the three Senate seats they were defending. Representative Ted Budd beat Cheri Beasley to replace retiring Senator Richard Burr.
Mr Johnson’s victory also secures 48 seats for Republicans as Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska is running for re-election. Meanwhile, Democrats are waiting to see if Senator Catherine Cortez Masto will win re-election in Nevada and Senator Raphael Warnock will go into a runoff against former University of Georgia running back and Heisman Trophy winner Herschel Walker next month on 6 December.
