Scott Walker will keep his job as the governor of Wisconsin after winning a contentious recall election that has been the focus of national news coverage for weeks. NBC News was first to call the race for Walker, with Rachel Maddow reporting the projection on MSNBC at 9:50pmET.
“Scott Walker, according to NBC News, is holding on tonight in Wisconsin after this epic, epic recall fight,” said Maddow before bringing in Ed Schultz, who was at a gathering of supporters of the democratic challenger Tom Barrett. “NBC is calling it for Walker. Okay. I think it’s awful close,” said Schultz, seeming to question the results with just 21% of the vote in at that point. “There’s a lot of absentee ballots that are still out and it’s going to be very, very close down to the wire.”
On Fox News, Sean Hannity tossed to Bret Baier, also reporting from Wisconsin, who made the call at 9:56pmET. Wolf Blitzer made the projection on CNN at 9:58pm.
This is the first time ever a sitting governor has kept his job after facing voters in a recall election.