'We got our butts kicked': Republicans reckon with Democratic success ahead of the midterms [View all]

Source: AP


By SCOTT BAUER, JEFF AMY and JONATHAN J. COOPER

Updated 7:57 AM CDT, April 9, 2026


MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The bluntest assessment of Republican failures during this week’s elections in Wisconsin came from one of their own.

“We got our butts kicked,” said U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, who is running for governor.

He was referring to Democratic victories in campaigns for the Wisconsin Supreme Court and the mayor’s office in Waukesha, a conservative suburb outside Milwaukee. But some Republicans were also rattled by a special election in Georgia, where their candidate to replace Marjorie Taylor Greene in Congress won by a much slimmer margin than the party enjoyed in the past.

Taken together, the swings from red to blue added more data points to an increasingly clear picture of Democratic momentum heading into the November midterms, when control of the U.S. House, the U.S. Senate and state governments around the country are up for grabs.

“In rural, urban, red, blue, Democrats have overperformed everywhere,” said Jared Leopold, a Democratic consultant whose clients include Keisha Lance Bottoms, a candidate for Georgia governor. “That is a significant canary in the coal mine about what November of ’26 is going to look like.”

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Read more: https://apnews.com/article/wisconsin-georgia-special-election-donald-trump-ffbfa23ad75aabcbdf034c87ee12c85c

apnews.com/article/wisc...

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