The 2010 United States Senate election in Wisconsin was held on November 2, 2010.

Incumbent The incumbent is the current holder of an office or position, usually in relation to an election. In an election for president, the incumbent is the person holding or acting in the office of president before the election, whether seeking re-ele ...

Democratic U.S. Senator

Russ Feingold Russell Dana Feingold ( ; born March 2, 1953) is an American lawyer and politician who served as a United States Senator from Wisconsin from 1993 to 2011. A member of the Democratic Party, he was its nominee in the 2016 election for the same U ...

ran for re-election to a fourth term, but was defeated by

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

challenger

Ron Johnson Ronald Harold Johnson (born April 8, 1955) is an American accountant, businessman, and politician serving as the senior United States senator from Wisconsin, a seat he has held since 2011. A Republican, Johnson was first elected to the U.S. S ...

, a businessman and first-time candidate. Johnson was the first Republican to win a Senate election in Wisconsin since

1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 **Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. **Spain and Portugal enter ...

. Feingold also became the fifth Senator in a row from Wisconsin's Class 3 Senate seat to be defeated for reelection in the general election, and the seventh in a row overall to lose reelection by a defeat in either the primary or general elections.

Republican primary

Candidates

;On the ballot * Stephen Finn,

plumber A plumber is a tradesperson who specializes in installing and maintaining systems used for potable (drinking) water, and for sewage and drainage in plumbing systems.

, businessman * Dave Westlake, businessman ;Declined * Ted Kanavas, state senator * Dick Leinenkugel (dropped out), former State Commerce Secretary *

Tommy Thompson Tommy George Thompson (born November 19, 1941) is an American Republican politician who most recently served as interim president of the University of Wisconsin System from 2020 to 2022. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served a ...

, former governor of Wisconsin * Terrence Wall (dropped out), real estate developer

Campaign

Former Republican Governor of Wisconsin

had expressed an interest in challenging Feingold, but ruled himself out of the race in April 2010. Johnson, a millionaire manufacturer and

Tea Party movement The Tea Party movement was an American fiscally conservative political movement within the Republican Party that began in 2009. Members of the movement called for lower taxes and for a reduction of the national debt and federal budget defi ...

favorite running for political office for the first time, was the frontrunner. In response to controversy over his ownership of stock in British Petroleum (BP), Johnson said he would sell it when market conditions were favorable and possibly use the proceeds to help finance his Senate campaign. Johnson was endorsed by: the

Club for Growth The Club for Growth is a 501(c)(4) conservative organization active in the United States, with an agenda focused on cutting taxes and other economic policy issues. Club for Growth's largest funders are the billionaires Jeff Yass and Richard U ...

, a fiscally conservative advocacy organization; former Wisconsin Republican Lt. Governor Margaret Farrow; Republican U.S. Senator

Jim DeMint James Warren DeMint (born September 2, 1951) is an American political advocate, businessman, author, and retired politician who served as a United States Senator from South Carolina and as president of the Heritage Foundation. DeMint is a member ...

of South Carolina; and Wisconsin Republican U.S. Representatives Jim Sensenbrenner,

Tom Petri Thomas Evert Petri (born May 28, 1940) is an American politician who was the U.S. representative for from 1979 to 2015; he is a member of the Republican Party. Early life Petri was born in Marinette, Wisconsin. When he was a toddler, his fat ...

and Paul Ryan. Businessman David Westlake was endorsed by the

Republican Liberty Caucus The Republican Liberty Caucus (RLC) is a political action organization dedicated to promoting the ideals of Individual freedom, individual liberty, limited government and free market economics within the Republican Party (United States), Republi ...

. According to

OpenSecrets OpenSecrets is a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., that tracks data on campaign finance and lobbying. It was created from a merger of the Center for Responsive Politics (CRP) and the National Institute on Money in Politics (NIMP) ...

, as of August 25, 2010, Johnson had invested $4.3 million of his own money into his campaign; this amount represented 71 percent of his campaign funds, while 27 percent of his campaign funds ($1.6 million) came from individual contributions.

Polling

Results

General election

Candidates

(D), incumbent U.S. senator *

(R), businessman * Dave Rutowski (I) * Rob Taylor (I) self-described Constitution Party candidate

Campaign

Feingold's first television ad was a positive ad released in March. In July 2010, Feingold's second 2010 television election ad attacked Johnson for alleged support for

offshore drilling Offshore drilling is a mechanical process where a wellbore is drilled below the seabed. It is typically carried out in order to explore for and subsequently extract petroleum that lies in rock formations beneath the seabed. Most commonly, the te ...

in the

Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. There are five lak ...

. Johnson quickly countered Feingold with a television ad of his own. Feingold's logo was ''Moving Forward''. In one ad, he emphasized independence and called himself a "

penny pincher A miser is a person who is reluctant to spend, sometimes to the point of forgoing even basic comforts and some necessities, in order to hoard money or other possessions. Although the word is sometimes used loosely to characterise anyone who ...

." Johnson argued that manufacturers and

accountants An accountant is a practitioner of accounting or accountancy. Accountants who have demonstrated competency through their professional associations' certification exams are certified to use titles such as Chartered Accountant, Chartered Certifi ...

were underrepresented in the U.S. Senate, and there were too many lawyers (57 out of 100 members, including Feingold). Feingold received the endorsements of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and the

Green Bay Press-Gazette The ''Green Bay Press-Gazette'' is a newspaper whose primary coverage is of northeastern Wisconsin, including Green Bay. It was founded as the ''Green Bay Gazette'' in 1866 as a weekly paper, becoming a daily newspaper in 1871. The ''Green Ba ...

. The

Beloit Daily News The ''Beloit Daily News'' is a daily newspaper that has served Beloit, Wisconsin and the stateline area of Rock County, Wisconsin and Winnebago County, Illinois since 1848. The newspaper was owned by Duane Hagadone and the Hagadone Newspaper Group ...

endorsed Johnson.

Debates

* October 8 in

Milwaukee Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee ...

* October 11 in Wausau * October 22 in Eau Claire on

WQOW WQOW (channel 18) is a television station in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, United States, serving the Chippewa Valley as an affiliate of ABC. Owned by Allen Media Broadcasting, the station has studios on Friedeck Road in Eau Claire, and its transmitter ...

Predictions

Polling

Fundraising

Through December 31, 2010:

Results

References

External links

Elections & Voting
at the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board *
Candidate list

U.S. Congress candidates for Wisconsin
at

Project Vote Smart Vote Smart, formerly called Project Vote Smart, is a non-profit, non-partisan research organization that collects and distributes information on candidates for public office in the United States. It covers candidates and elected officials in s ...

Wisconsin U.S. Senate
from OurCampaigns.com
Campaign contributions
from

Open Secrets ''Open Secrets'' () is a book of short stories by Alice Munro published by McClelland and Stewart in 1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente buil ...

2010 Wisconsin Senate General Election: All Head-to-Head Matchups] graph of multiple polls from ''Pollster.com''
Election 2010: Wisconsin Senate
from

Rasmussen Reports Rasmussen Reports is an American polling company founded in 2003. The company engages in political commentary and the collection, publication, and distribution of public opinion polling information. Rasmussen Reports conducts nightly tracking, ...

2010 Wisconsin Senate Race
from

Real Clear Politics RealClearPolitics (RCP) is an American political news website and polling data aggregator formed in 2000 by former options trader John McIntyre and former advertising agency account executive Tom Bevan. The site features selected political new ...

2010 Wisconsin Senate Race
from

CQ Politics Congressional Quarterly, Inc., or CQ, is part of a privately owned publishing company called CQ Roll Call that produces a number of publications reporting primarily on the United States Congress. CQ was acquired by the Economist Group and combine ...

Race profile
from

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

Election 2010 news coverage
at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ;Official campaign websites (Archived)
Russ Feingold for U.S. Senate
incumbent
Ron Johnson for Senate

Dave Westlake for U.S. Senate
{{United States elections, 2010

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

2010 2010 Wisconsin elections