Tiffany elected

Tom Tiffany will represent northern Wisconsin in congress, at least through the end of the year.

Voters turned out to support Tiffany against his opponent, Tricia Zunker of Wausau during Tuesday’s special election. The two were vying to fill the seat that has been vacant since last fall when Rep. Sean Duffy stepped down citing family commitments. Tiffany’s win means he will turn around and seek reelection in November.

Tiffany had solid victories in each of Taylor County’s 27 voting precincts. At the county level, 5,006 voters cast ballots with 1,369 for Zunker (27%) and 3,634 (73%) for Tom Tiffany. There was one write-in in the county for independent Dennis Paulaha.

District-wide, the margins were closer with Tiffany winning by a 57% to 43% margin. Zunker won only three counties (Ashland, Bayfield and Douglas) among the 22 counties that make up the sprawling 7th Congressional District.

“I have one goal as I go out to Washington, DC, that is to get America back up on her feet again,” Tiffany said on election night. He vowed to work to help America recover from the economic impact of the health crisis.

Tiffany credited his opponent for running a good race in highly unusual circumstances and thanked all the voters in the 7th Congressional District for coming to the polls.

“I will do my very best to represent everyone in the 7th Congressional District in Washington, DC,” Tiffany said. In conceding the election Tuesday night, Zunker said the margin showed Democrats are gaining compared to previous congressional and national races since 2011.

“I ran on affordable health care, help for our small businesses and family farmers, and protecting our environment, and that message resonated with people throughout Northern Wisconsin,” said Tricia Zunker. “Despite a global pandemic and the lack of universal mail-in voting, we showed what can be done, and we laid the groundwork for this seat to turn blue in November.”