Sen. Ron Johnson Says ‘This Race is Over,’ But Holds off on Official Declaration
NEENAH, Wis.—Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson was almost ready to declare victory over Democrat Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes just before 1 a.m. CST on Nov. 9, but he told supporters he will wait for the full vote count to declare “final victory.”
With slightly more than 93 percent of the votes counted, Johnson maintained a nearly 39,000-vote lead over Barnes.
Johnson amassed 1,322,922 votes (50.7 percent) to 1,284,189 (49.3 percent) for Barnes, a former state legislator from Milwaukee who won the race for lieutenant governor in 2018.
“We’ve looked very closely at the numbers,” Johnson said. “We feel very confident that there’s no way that they can really make up that gap….