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As the year got underway, Oshkosh Corporation, a Wisconsin-based company, announced plans to create plenty of new manufacturing jobs — in South Carolina. Wisconsin’s Democratic senator, Tammy Baldwin, immediately went to work trying to keep those jobs in her home state.
The state’s other senator, Republican Ron Johnson, said he didn’t much care. “It’s not like we don’t have enough jobs here in Wisconsin,” the GOP lawmaker said.
There were times in 2022 when Johnson practically seemed to be daring voters to reject him. It was as if he were conducting a real-life political science experiment, testing the limits of how far a politician could go and still get re-elected in a competitive battleground state.
The incumbent didn’t just thumb his nose at economic development in his own state, he also concocted a weird conspiracy theory about the FBI, which he foolishly claimed had tried to “set him up.” Johnson moved sharply to the right on Social Security and Medicare, endorsing a plan that would put the programs in jeopardy. His Jan. 6 antics made the Republican a national laughingstock. He wouldn’t even commit to accepting the legitimacy of Wisconsin’s election results.
With just a few weeks remaining in the cycle, the editorial board of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel published a thorough takedown of Johnson’s career, adding that the far-right incumbent “is the worst Wisconsin political representative since the infamous Sen. Joseph McCarthy.”
And yet, Johnson won anyway, overcoming his embarrassing record and lack of accomplishments, defeating Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes by a single percentage point — even as Wisconsin’s Democratic governor, Tony Evers, simultaneously won re-election by a wider margin.
The GOP senator who occasionally seemed as if he were trying to lose nevertheless earned a third term — at which point Johnson whined some more.
The conservative Washington Times reported yesterday, “Sen. Ron Johnson blasted his Democratic opponent Mandela Barnes for a long wait to concede the race clear when it was clearly breaking for the incumbent.” It’s not that Barnes refused to accept the results; it’s that Johnson was bothered by the fact that Barnes didn’t concede fast enough to satisfy the senator.
The Republican also slammed the “corporate media” for not calling the race as quickly as he would’ve liked.
Last night, Johnson appeared on Fox News, thanked Sean Hannity for the host’s “crucial” campaign support, and proceeded to whine some more.
“[T]he media is completely allied against us, as is our education system. ... But I think maybe more than anything, Democrats have no problem lying. The president lies. President Obama lies. My opponent lied. And, of course, the media amplifies those same lies. And let’s face it, lies taint you. So it’s very effective. You know, we won this campaign, we won this race, because I told the truth. But, again, those lies — when you have a political party that has no problem lying, where they figure the end justifies the means, unfortunately, that has impact in politics.”
Remember, this is the guy who didn't come up short on Election Day.
Johnson made clear that he wasn’t prepared to lose gracefully. Evidently, he doesn’t believe in winning gracefully, either.