United States House of Representatives elections in Wisconsin, 2012

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	Primary Date ; August 14, 2012
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	2012 U.S. Senate Elections

The 2012 U.S. House of Representatives elections in Wisconsin took place on November 6, 2012. Voters elected eight candidates to serve in the U.S. House, one from each of the state's eight congressional districts.

Candidate Filing Deadline	Primary Election	General Election
June 1, 2012	August 14, 2012	November 6, 2012

Primary: Wisconsin has an open primary system, in which any registered voter can choose which party's primary to vote in, without having to be a member of that party.

Voter registration: Voter registration requirements may vary by municipality, although voters with valid ID must be granted a provisional ballot at the polls.^[1]

See also: Wisconsin elections, 2012

According to the New York Times race ratings in October 2012, two of the eight districts were considered to be in play. Those were the 7th and 8th districts.^[2]

The Center for Voting and Democracy (Fairvote) projected that both Democrats and Republicans would win three seats. It did not make a projection for the remaining two districts.^[3]

Primary competitiveness

See also: National contested primary average during the 2012 U.S. congressional elections

Wisconsin had the 47th most competitive congressional primaries in 2012, with 12.5% of major party primaries having been contested (2 out of 16). The national average was 54.31%.

Seven U.S. House incumbents sought re-election in Wisconsin in 2012. 1 of those 7 (14.29%) faced a primary challenger. Nationwide, 200 out of the 386 incumbents seeking re-election faced a primary challenger (51.81%).

Partisan breakdown

Heading into the November 6 election, the Republican Party held five of the eight Congressional seats from Wisconsin.

Members of the U.S. House from Wisconsin -- Partisan Breakdown
Party		As of November 2012	After the 2012 Election
	Democratic Party	3	3
	Republican Party	5	5
Total		8	8

Incumbents

Heading into the 2012 election, the incumbents for the eight congressional districts were:

Name	Party	District
Gwen Moore	Democratic	4
Jim Sensenbrenner	Republican	5
Paul Ryan	Republican	1
Reid Ribble	Republican	8
Ron Kind	Democratic	3
Sean Duffy	Republican	7
Tammy Baldwin	Democratic	2
Tom Petri	Republican	6

Margin of victory for winners

There were a total of 8 seats up for election in 2012 in Wisconsin. The following table shows the margin of victory for each district winner, which is calculated by examining the percentage difference between the top-two vote getters. If the race was uncontested, the margin of victory is listed as 100%.

District	Winner	Margin of Victory	Total Vote	Top Opponent
Wisconsin, District 1	Paul Ryan	11.5%	365,058	Rob Zerban
Wisconsin, District 2	Mark Pocan	36%	390,898	Chad Lee
Wisconsin, District 3	Ron Kind	28.3%	339,764	Ray Boland
Wisconsin, District 4	Gwen Moore	47.4%	325,788	Dan Sebring
Wisconsin, District 5	Jim Sensenbrenner	35.7%	369,664	Dave Heaster
Wisconsin, District 6	Tom Petri	24.3%	359,745	Joe Kallas
Wisconsin, District 7	Sean Duffy	12.3%	359,669	Pat Kreitlow
Wisconsin, District 8	Reid Ribble	12%	355,464	Jamie Wall

General election candidates

District	General Election Candidates	Incumbent	2012 Winner	Partisan Switch?
1st	Rob Zerban Paul Ryan Keith Deschler	Paul Ryan	Paul Ryan	No
2nd	Mark Pocan Chad Lee	Tammy Baldwin	Mark Pocan	No
3rd	Ron Kind Ray Boland	Ron Kind	Ron Kind	No
4th	Gwen Moore Dan Sebring Robert Raymond	Gwen Moore	Gwen Moore	No
5th	Dave Heaster Jim Sensenbrenner	Jim Sensenbrenner	Jim Sensenbrenner	No
6th	Joe Kallas Tom Petri	Tom Petri	Tom Petri	No
7th	Pat Kreitlow Sean Duffy	Sean Duffy	Sean Duffy	No
8th	Jamie Wall Reid Ribble	Reid Ribble	Reid Ribble	No

Candidates

Note: Election results were added on election night as races were called. Vote totals were added after official election results had been certified. Click here for more information about Ballotpedia's election coverage plan. Please contact us about errors in this list.