GOP's Eric Hovde blames third-party candidate for Senate loss – and refuses to concede

Wisconsin Senate candidate Eric Hovde is still refusing to concede his loss to Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and blaming a third-party candidate for siphoning off the votes he needed to win.

America First candidate Thomas Leager netted almost the exact vote total as the Hovde's loss margin, and the Republican accused Democrats of propping up the former gun rights lobbyist's long-shot campaign, reported NOTUS.

“We’re certainly disappointed that the Democrats’ effort to siphon votes with a fraudulent candidate had a significant impact on the race, with those votes making up more than the entire margin of the race right now,” Hovde said Wednesday morning in a press release. “We will continue to monitor returns and make sure that every vote is counted.”

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Leager, who claims he was an unindicted co-conspirator in the 2020 plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, says he was recruited by operatives with the Patriots Run Project, but the Associated Press found that Democrats were donating campaign funds to Leager and others to "siphon votes from Republicans."

Baldwin was ahead of Hovde by 8,958 on Thursday morning, while Leager had received 28,717 votes.

“It’s unfortunate if the Democrats wouldn’t have put a plant, this probably would have been called some time ago,” Hovde said. “But you know what? It is what it is.”

State Assembly majority leader Robin Vos also blamed the third-party candidate for Hovde's loss, as did GOP State Assembly candidate Jim Piwowarczyk, but Democrats denied the allegations.

“That is absurd," said a Democratic strategist in the state. "There are millions of reasons why Wisconsinites didn’t vote for Eric Hovde. Hovde should stop being a whiny baby and admit he lost this election. [Democrats] didn’t recruit a man who tried to kidnap Gov. Whitmer.”