Glenn Grothman won a seventh term representing Wisconsin's 6th Congressional District on election night. The result kept the seat in Republican hands and extended his tenure in Congress.
Glenn Grothman in Wisconsin
Grothman, 71, entered the race seeking to fend off Democrat Brad Smith. Smith was seeking his first political office, while Grothman was running on an established record that included service in the state legislature from 1993-2015.
The district has stayed aligned with Republicans for years. No Democrat has represented it since John Abner Race from 1965-67, and no statewide or nationwide candidate has won it since Barack Obama in 2008, when he carried it by 0.05%.
Brad Smith and the race
Smith focused his campaign on the rising price of fuel, cost of living, jobs and the economy. Grothman said his priorities were cleaning up the welfare system, protecting family values, protecting laws that support employers employing people with disabilities, and supporting manufacturing.
The district backed Grothman by 23 points in 2024, a margin that made Smith's path narrow from the start. That left the seventh-term result less about a party switch than about whether a challenger with no prior elected office could break into a seat that has resisted it for decades.
Wisconsin's 6th Congressional District
The victory gives Grothman another full term in the House and leaves the 6th Congressional District under the same party control going forward. The unanswered question in the race is the final vote total and margin in this election-night win.
