U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) made it official Wednesday, announcing her quest for a third term.
The Madison Democrat insists “Wisconsinites need someone who can fight and win,” but Baldwin has shown during her time in D.C. that she’s a very dependable vote for the far-left agenda — an agenda that’s out of touch with many voters in the politically purple Badger State.
“I’m committed to making sure that working people, not just the big corporations and ultra-wealthy, have a fighter on their side,” Wisconsin’s junior U.S. senator said in a statement Wednesday.
In nearly two full terms in the Senate, Baldwin has voted with her party more than 95 percent of the time. She has long been ranked as one of the more liberal members of the Senate. In 2021, she was rated the sixth most liberal member, just behind far left senators Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, and Corey Booker of New Jersey.
Baldwin, who represented Wisconsin’s left-leaning 2nd Congressional District for seven terms before winning the Senate seat long held by Milwaukee Democrat Herb Kohl in 2012, has been a dependable vote for President Joe Biden’s far-left agenda. She also was a reliable vote against former President Donald Trump’s conservative policies and twice voted to convict the Republican in the Democrat-led attempts to remove him from office.
The Republican Party of Wisconsin is looking to tie Baldwin to Biden’s hip, connecting her to an unpopular octogenarian president whose policies have led to historically high inflation, including record gas prices, bedlam at the U.S. southern border, soaring crime and sweeping government overreach. Biden is expected to run for a second term but has delayed an announcement.
“The Biden-Baldwin ticket will be on the hot seat with Wisconsin voters, in a state where four of the last six presidential elections were decided by less than 1% and Biden’s approval ratings are upside down,” said Rachel Reisner, spokeswoman for the Wisconsin GOP. “Baldwin has a lot of explaining to do after voting in lockstep with Joe Biden’s unpopular agenda over 95% of the time, complete with its inflationary spending that has pushed our economy to the tipping point.”
Baldwin, the first openly gay woman elected to the Senate, has been proudly endorsed and heralded by LGBTQ advocates. The Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBTQ advocate, called Baldwin a “trailblazer” in endorsing her successful re-election bid in 2018.
She was seen as a leader in the repeal of Democrat President Bill Clinton’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” on gay military members. Baldwin has been a vehement backer of gay marriage legislation, and co-author of the Equality Act, legislation that would extend wide-ranging federal protections to gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and other Americans under the LGBTQ banner. Biden, who has pushed sweeping executive orders to please his far-left base, has urged Congress to pass the bill.
Conservatives and civil liberty advocates say the identity politics legislation would take away protections.
“[I]t would spell the end of coherent protections based on sex in all aspects of public life,” wrote Emma Waters, research associate at the Heritage Foundation. “Males posing as females would have the right to compete (and dominate) in girls sports. It would require doctors, against their will, to perform sex-sterilization surgeries on healthy people for the purpose of ‘gender transitioning.’”
But “women’s reproductive rights” may be the phrase that pays for Baldwin, if the last year in politics is any guide. Democrats have had a great deal of success turning the “a word” at every turn, staving off a “red wave” in November’s midterms and, in Wisconsin, re-electing a pro-abortion governor and attorney general and ending conservative control of the state’s Supreme Court.
“With so much at stake, from families struggling with rising costs to a ban on reproductive freedom, Wisconsinites need someone who can fight and win,” Baldwin said in a statement.
Baldwin co-authored the so-called Women’s Health Protection Act in the wake of last June’s U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling overturning Roe v. Wade. The bill would open up abortion everywhere in the United States, defying state bans on abortion. And it would federally legalize abortions up to 24 weeks of pregnancy — and beyond. Abortion on demand.
One of the abortion industry’s best friends, Emily’s List, quickly rolled out its endorsement of Baldwin’s campaign.
“EMILYs List is proud to stand by her campaign because we have seen just how fiercely she fights for our rights. We look forward to seeing what Baldwin will accomplish for Wisconsinites and all Americans during her next term,” the organization said in a statement.
No Wisconsin Republican has declared a run for Baldwin’s seat, but Madison businessman Eric Hovde — who lost the Republican nomination to former Governor Tommy Thompson in the 2012 Senate election — has said he’s considering a run. As is Franklin businessman Scott Mayer. U.S. Representative Mike Gallagher (R-WI-08) has been mentioned as a potential contender, and former Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke has said he hasn’t ruled out a run.
The Cook Political Report rates Baldwin’s seat as leaning Democrat, but that is always subject to change in purple Wisconsin, a key battleground state in the 2024 election. U.S. Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) won a third term in November, defying expectations in a down year for Republicans in statewide elections.
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M.D. Kittle is the National Political Editor for The Star News Network.
