MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A special election
in a rural Wisconsin district President Donald Trump carried by 20
points pits a Trump-aligned state senator against a school board
president hoping to become the first Native American elected to Congress
from the state.
Tuesday’s
election will help measure the enthusiasm of Republicans in a deeply
conservative part of Wisconsin just over a month after a liberal-backed Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate won a statewide race over a Trump-backed candidate.
The winner in Wisconsin’s deeply conservative 7th District will replace Republican Sean Duffy, a former star on MTV’s “Real World” who held the seat since 2011 and remains a vocal Trump backer.
Republican
state Sen. Tom Tiffany faced Democrat Tricia Zunker, the Wausau School
Board chair. It’s the second time voters will leave their homes in five
weeks to cast ballots in the middle of a stay-at-home order issued to
slow the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. Wisconsin held its
presidential primary election on April 7.
Unlike that election, there have been no widespread calls to delay or otherwise alter voting
for Tuesday’s special election. For one thing, the massive
18,800-square-mile district is mostly rural and has very few confirmed
cases of COVID-19. The district, which includes 21 counties and portions
of five others, has fewer than 2% of all positive coronavirus cases i n the state and less than 2.5% of all deaths.
However,
about 250 members of the Wisconsin National Guard were activated to
help staff polls due to a shortage of willing workers. About 2,500 Guard
members were activated for the April election.
Shery
Weinkauf, clerk for the village of Weston, said voters felt safe in
April and the same safeguards are being put in place for Tuesday’s
election. Those include keeping voters at a 6-foot distance from one
another, making hand sanitizer available and having all poll workers
wear masks.
“I
feel much more comfortable moving forward with this election than I did
with the last election, because during the last election there were so
many unknowns,” Weinkauf said. “I don’t think we all knew enough what
was going on with the COVID-19. And so it was that it was maybe a little
scary and stressful. I don’t feel that way anymore.”
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Democratic
Gov. Tony Evers has repeatedly voiced confidence about the election
being held safely, citing safety measures and experience gained from
holding the April election.
Voting
early by mail-in absentee balloting is also strong but behind the pace
set in April’s statewide election. In that one, about 34% of registered
voters cast ballots absentee. That amounted to about 71% of everyone who
ended up voting in the election. As of Monday, just 19% of registered voters in the 7th Congressional District had returned an absentee ballot.
Tiffany,
a state senator since 2011, had Trump’s endorsement, but the pandemic
prevented the president from campaigning in the district. Zunker, an
attorney, was endorsed by Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and a host
of liberal groups, including EMILY’s List and Planned Parenthood.
Tiffany,
62, was born on a dairy farm in the district and ran a tourist boat
business for 20 years. Joining the Legislature in 2011, he was a close
ally of then-Republican Gov. Scott Walker and voted to pass Act 10, the
law that all but ended the union rights of most public employees. He
also voted in favor of legalizing concealed carry and moving the state
forestry division to northern Wisconsin. And he pushed to locate an open
pit mine in northern Wisconsin that ultimately never came to the state.
Zunker,
39, is a justice on the Ho-Chunk Nation Supreme Court and a professor
at three colleges, including one law school. Zunker is on leave from
serving on the board of the American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin.
Zunker
has less money and name recognition than Tiffany, but she’s focused her
effort on her home base in voter-rich Wausau where she was raised and
still lives. That’s at the southern edge of the 18,700-square-mile
district that’s larger than New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware and Rhode
Island combined.
The
winner will serve the remainder of the year but will have to stand for
election again in November to serve a full two-year term.
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Associated Press writer Carrie Antlfinger contributed to this report from Milwaukee.
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Follow Scott Bauer on Twitter: https://twitter.com/sbauerAP
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