Russ Feingold

Russ Feingold

Democratic Party

Prior offices

U.S. Senate Wisconsin

Successor: Ronald Harold Johnson

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Elections and appointments

Last election

November 8, 2016

Contact

Personal website

Russ Feingold was a candidate for Wisconsin's U.S. Senate seat in 2016. He previously served in the Senate from 1993 to 2011. Feingold was defeated for re-election by Ron Johnson (R) in 2010. Feingold lost to Johnson for the U.S. Senate seat from Wisconsin in 2016.

Elections

2016

See also: United States Senate election in Wisconsin, 2016

The race for Wisconsin's U.S. Senate seat was one of nine competitive battleground races in 2016 that helped Republicans maintain control of the Senate. Incumbent Ron Johnson (R) defeated former Senator Russ Feingold (D) and Phil Anderson (L) in the general election on November 8, 2016.

In a rematch of the 2010 election, Johnson defeated Feingold for a second time to retain his Senate seat. Johnson trailed in the polls for most of the election. In the final weeks of the election, Johnson received funding from national Republicans. Johnson said, "I wish I would have had the cavalry show up in June, July, August when Feingold was using his little moneymaking machine to out resource me. I guess, better late than never."

Feingold reacted to his loss by saying to supporters, “I didn’t expect this outcome, to be honest with you.” Commenting on his loss and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s, Feingold said, “I would urge you to be as restrained as you can be as the next steps occur...this could be one the most challenging times in the history of our country.”

Johnson, who defeated Feingold by three percentage points, said in his victory speech, "I believe America has given us a chance, an opportunity to put this nation on the right path. It's exactly what I intend to do."

U.S. Senate, Wisconsin General Election, 2016

Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Republican	Ron Johnson Incumbent	50.2%	1,479,471
	Democratic	Russ Feingold	46.8%	1,380,335
	Libertarian	Phil Anderson	3%	87,531
	N/A	Write-in	0%	8
Total Votes				2,947,345
Source: Wisconsin Elections Commission

U.S. Senate, Wisconsin Democratic Primary, 2016

Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Russ Feingold	90.2%	303,791
Scott Harbach	9.8%	33,096
Total Votes		336,887
Source: Wisconsin Elections and Ethics Commission

Campaign themes

2016

The following issues were listed on Feingold's campaign website. For a full list of campaign themes, click here.

“	Economic Opportunity For Wisconsin Families: As Russ travels to all 72 counties in Wisconsin, what he’s heard more than anything else is that people, even if they have full-time jobs, are still having trouble paying the bills and having a little time to spend with their family. Making College Affordable: As Russ has traveled across Wisconsin, he’s heard more about the challenge of paying back student loans than he’s heard concerns about any other single household expense. Closing Special Interest Loopholes: The people of Wisconsin are working hard to rebuild our economy, and all across the state Russ has been hearing that people are optimistic about our future and ready to unite. Washington can’t get in the way with special interest loopholes and partisan gridlock shutting down our budget process. A failure to address these issues means lower economic growth and increased interest rates for borrowing – that affects everyone. Responsible government benefits all Americans, and all Americans have a stake in making sure that Washington exercises fiscal responsibility. Retirement Security: Wisconsin seniors are feeling squeezed, and they worry that saving for a comfortable, independent retirement is getting harder and harder in today’s economy. Yet the path to a secure, independent retirement for Wisconsin’s seniors is clear, if we work together. National Security: The first responsibility of a senator is to keep our country safe from foreign threats. To do this, the United States must have a comprehensive strategy that doesn’t just address one threat at a time. First, we must focus on the threat posed by Al-Qaeda and we must destroy its most potent offshoot, the Islamic State, or ISIS. But in addition to all that we also need to find new ways to engage with the world, to identify emerging threats, and to help other countries better understand our people and our values.	”
—Russ Feingold's campaign website, http://russfeingold.com/issues/

Campaign finance summary

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Recent news

The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Russ Feingold Wisconsin Senate. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.

Russ Feingold - Google News

See also

• United States congressional delegations from Wisconsin
• United States Senate elections, 2016
• United States Senate election in Wisconsin, 2016

External links

Suggest a link

• Campaign website
• Facebook page
• Twitter feed
• Progressives United
  • About Russ Feingold

• Social media:
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
• Biographies:
  • U.S. Congress
  • Wikipedia
• Political profiles:
  • GovTrack
  • OpenCongress
  • Project Vote Smart
  • Roll Call
• Financial (federal level):
  • FEC contributions
  • OpenSecrets.org
  • LegiStorm.com
• Interest group ratings:
  • Project Vote Smart
• Issue positions:
  • On The Issues
  • Project Vote Smart
• Legislation:
  • Congress.gov
• Public statements:
  • Project Vote Smart
• Voting record:
  • Project Vote Smart
  • Washington Post
• Works by or about:
  • WorldCat
• Media appearances:
  • C-SPAN
  • IMDb
• Media coverage:
  • New York Times
  • Washington Post

Footnotes

Political offices
Preceded by Robert W. Kasten, Jr.	U.S. Senate - Wisconsin 1993-2011	Succeeded by Ron Johnson

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Wisconsin's current delegation to the United States Congress

Senators

Tammy Baldwin (D)

Ronald Johnson (R)

Representatives

District 1

Bryan Steil (R)

District 2

Mark Pocan (D)

District 3

Derrick Van Orden (R)

District 4

Gwen Moore (D)

District 5

Scott Fitzgerald (R)

District 6

Glenn Grothman (R)

District 7

Tom Tiffany (R)

District 8

Tony Wied (R)

Republican Party (7)

Democratic Party (3)