A Democrat won a state Senate seat in Wisconsin on Tuesday night in an astonishing upset that could signal the turning tide against President Donald Trump in the upcoming midterm elections.
St. Croix Medical Examiner Patty Schachtner defeated Republican state Rep. Adam Jarchow by 9 points in the 10th Senate District where every county voted for Trump in 2016.
Barack Obama lost the district by 6 points in 2012, while Hillary Clinton was a whopping 17 points behind Trump.
Schachtner will replace Republican Sheila Hardsdorf, who held the Senate seat for 16 years before she resigned in November to become Gov. Scott Walker's agriculture secretary.
On Tuesday, the new state senator said her win sends a message that voters are tired of negative politics.
"People sent a message tonight we don't want to be negative anymore," she said. "Change it up. I ran a positive campaign. ... My message has always been be kind, be considerate and we need to help people when they're down."
Schachtner said the victory "certainly could be" a bad sign for Republicans elsewhere in the state this year, but for now she's just focused on serving her new constituents.
Schachtner's victory doesn't change the balance of power in the Senate. Republicans will go into the fall campaign season with an 18-14 majority and one vacancy.
But her win is a sign of hope for Democrats, who have been pushed to the brink of irrelevancy after seven years of Republican control of both legislative houses and the governor's office.
