Takeaways: Johnson vs. Barnes in premier US Senate race
WASHINGTON (AP) — Ron Johnson, the most vulnerable Republican senator up for reelection, will take on Wisconsin's Democratic lieutenant governor in November in one of this year's most closely watched Senate contests.
Meanwhile, voters in Vermont are poised to send a woman to Congress for the first time in the state's 231-year history.
Takeaways from election results Tuesday night:
TOUGH FIGHT IN WISCONSIN SENATE RACE
If you take his word for it, Johnson shouldn't be running this year. The Wisconsin Republican had pledged to step down after two terms, only to reverse himself this year.
Now, after coasting to victory in his primary Tuesday, Johnson's reward will be a hard-fought campaign against Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes that could determine the balance of power in the narrowly divided U.S. Senate and is certain to saturate the airwaves with millions of dollars in political advertising.
It will be the first time Johnson won’t be running against former Sen. Russ Feingold, the Democrat he ousted from office and defeated again six years later.
The matchup offers a study in contrasts. Johnson, 67, is a multimillionaire businessman whose father was a corporate treasurer. At 35, Barnes is almost half his age and the product of a working-class Milwaukee family.
Barnes would be the first Black senator from Wisconsin if elected.
Johnson has the former president's backing. But he's also the only Republican senator up for reelection in a state Joe Biden won in 2020.
VERMONT'S GLASS CEILING
Vermont has been represented in Congress by white men ever since it became the 14th state to join the union in 1791.
That's poised to change after state Senate leader Becca Balint advanced from Tuesday's Democratic primary to face Republican Liam Madden in a general election contest that will...