7th Congressional District: Republican Tom Tiffany wins seat held by former Rep. Sean Duffy, beating out Tricia Zunker

Laura Schulte Megan Stringer
Wausau Daily Herald

WAUSAU - Tom Tiffany will serve as the next representative of Wisconsin's 7th Congressional District. 

Tiffany, a Republican, was elected Tuesday, beating out Democrat Tricia Zunker for the seat during a special election. 

Tiffany received 57% of the vote compared with Zunker's 43%.

  • Tiffany: 109,592 votes
  • Zunker: 81,928 votes

The results in Marathon County closely mirrored the district, with Tiffany winning almost 59% of the vote there to Zunker's 41% in the county. Just over 50% of registered Marathon County voters turned out to cast a ballot.

In all, more than 91,000 absentee ballots were returned in the district, according to the Wisconsin Elections Commission. More than 114,000 people requested one. In Marathon County, around 20,800 absentee ballots were reported returned of the more than 25,000 requested by voters.

Tiffany is facing a quick turnaround after the election. He will be expected in Washington, D.C., starting next week to begin serving in Congress. Tiffany also faces another campaign season, too. Like every other seat in Congress, the 7th Congressional District is on the ballot in November. 

Tiffany addressed supporters over a Facebook Live video Tuesday night, with his family beside him. He said Zunker called him Tuesday night, and he congratulated her on running "a good race" in difficult circumstances over the past couple months during the state's Safer at Home order.

Tiffany said his goal in Congress is "to get America back on its feet" after the economic blow brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. He thanked his family for their support as well as voters in the district.

"I just want to say thank you to all the voters of the 7th Congressional District, whether you voted for me or my opponent," he said.

Zunker also addressed supporters over Facebook Live, saying the vote shows "we laid the groundwork for a Democratic win in November." The 14-point margin was closer than when President Donald Trump won the district by 20 points in 2016. 

"This isn’t the result we were hoping for, but we did something incredible here," Zunker said. "We did something that no one thought a Democrat in this district could do, in spite of a global pandemic.

"We did something incredible despite the fact that legislators refused to switch to mail-in voting to protect the health and safety of Wisconsinites."

Zunker, 39, is the president of the Wausau School Board and an associate justice for the Ho-Chunk Nation Supreme Court. She is the first Native American woman to run for Congress in Wisconsin since Ada Deer lost to Republican Scott Klug in 1992. 

Tiffany, 62, has served as a state senator since 2013 and spent two decades running Wilderness Cruises on the Willow Flowage. 

Campaigns for the seat kicked off in September when former U.S. Rep. Sean Duffy stepped down after learning the child his wife was about to have would require open-heart surgery not long after her birth. 

The race has been marked by high spending by Republicans, with Tiffany bringing in over $1.3 million, including donations from Republican interest groups. Zunker raised just over $350,000 in the election. 

The race was also marked by sharp ideological disagreements, on display in a series of debates in the weeks leading up to the debate. Among the most heated topics were the candidates' divergent viewpoints on abortion, mining interests in northern Wisconsin and gun control. 

The district, which covers all of 21 counties and portions of five others in northern Wisconsin, has tilted heavily toward Republicans in recent years.  

"I look forward to going to work with President Trump out in Washington D.C.," Tiffany said.

Laura Schulte can be reached at leschulte@gannett.com and twitter.com/SchulteLaura. Megan Stringer can be reached at mstringer@gannett.com and twitter.com/megstringers.