Tommy Thompson (Wisconsin)
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This page was current at the end of the individual's last campaign covered by Ballotpedia. Please contact us with any updates. |
Tommy Thompson (b. November 19, 1941) was a 2012 Republican candidate who sought election to the U.S. Senate from Wisconsin. He lost in the general election.[1]
Biography
Thompson was previously the governor of Wisconsin and served as Secretary of Health and Human Services under George W. Bush.[2]
Issues
Tommy outlined his RESTORE plan on his campaign website:[3] "Governor Thompson has announced RESTORE policy initiatives that tackle our country’s most pressing economic issues, including:
- Tackling our burgeoning debt through entitlement and budget reform;
- Repealing Obamacare and replacing it with market-based solutions;
- Boosting our economy through tax simplification and reduction;
- Reforming our budget process and cutting wasteful spending, such as excessive federal worker pay; and
- Enacting a pro-growth energy policy."
Elections
Presidential preference
2016 presidential endorsement
✓ Thompson endorsed John Kasich for the Republican primary in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.[4]
- See also: Endorsements for John Kasich
2012
Thompson ran in the 2012 election for the U.S. Senate, representing Wisconsin. He ran on the Republican ticket,[5] having defeated Mark Neumann, Jeff Fitzgerald, and Eric Hovde in the August 14 Republican primary.[6] He lost to Tammy Baldwin (D) in the general election.[1]
The University of Virginia's Center for Politics published an article called Sabato's Crystal Ball on March 22, 2012, detailing the eight races in the Senate in 2012 that would decide the political fate of which party will end up with control in 2013.[7] The seat, rated a toss-up, was one that the Sabato's Crystal Ball believed could be decided by the party's nomination. The articles believed Thompson would have a significant edge in the general election.[7] According to the article, "Given the current state of these toss ups, it’s not a stretch to think that a Thompson victory in Wisconsin could end up giving Republicans their 51st Senate seat."[7]
Two Democratic political action committees, Majority PAC and Women Vote! spent money running ads against Hovde and Thompson. Majority PAC spent $370,000 and Women Vote! spent $420,000. Overall, $3.4 million were spent by outside groups about Republican candidates in the senate primary race.[8]
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic |  Tammy Baldwin |
51.5% | 1,547,104 | |
| Republican | Tommy Thompson | 45.9% | 1,380,126 | |
| Libertarian | Joseph Kexel | 2.1% | 62,240 | |
| Independent | Nimrod Allen III | 0.5% | 16,455 | |
| K.A. | Write-ins | 0% | 113 | |
| Total Votes | 3,006,038 | |||
| Source: U.S. House Clerk "2012 Election Statistics" | ||||
Polls
| Tammy Baldwin vs. Tommy Thompson | |||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Poll | Tommy Thompson | Tammy Baldwin | Another Candidate | Not sure | Margin of error | Sample size | |||||||||||||
| Rasmussen Poll (July 25, 2012) | 41% | 48% | 5% | 6% | +/-4.5 | 500 | |||||||||||||
| Rasmussen Poll (August 15, 2012) | 54% | 43% | 1% | 3% | +/-4.5 | 500 | |||||||||||||
| Quinnipiac University (August 23,2012) | 50% | 44% | 1% | 4% | +/-2.8 | 1,190 | |||||||||||||
| Rasmussen Poll (October 28,2012) | 48% | 47% | 2% | 4% | +/-4.5 | 500 | |||||||||||||
| Rasmussen Reports (November 2, 2012 | 48% | 48% | 1% | 2% | +/-4 | 750 | |||||||||||||
| AVERAGES | 48.2% | 46% | 2% | 3.8% | +/-4.06 | 688 | |||||||||||||
| Note: The polls above may not reflect all polls that have been conducted in this race. Those displayed are a random sampling chosen by Ballotpedia staff. If you would like to nominate another poll for inclusion in the table, send an email to [email protected]. | |||||||||||||||||||
Campaign finance summary
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2016 Republican National Convention
- See also: Republican National Convention, 2016
Thompson was an at-large delegate to the 2016 Republican National Convention from Wisconsin. Thompson was one of 36 delegates from Wisconsin bound by state party rules to support Ted Cruz at the convention.[9] Cruz suspended his campaign on May 3, 2016. At the time, he had approximately 546 bound delegates. For more on what happened to his delegates, see this page.
Delegate rules
At-large delegates from Wisconsin to the Republican National Convention were selected by a committee formed by the candidate who received a plurality of the statewide vote in the state presidential primary election and ratified by the State Executive Committee. For district-level delegates, the district chairman of each district compiled a list of delegates from which the presidential candidate who won a plurality of the vote in that district selected three delegates. Delegates from Wisconsin were bound to a candidate on all ballots at the convention unless the candidate released them or failed to receive one-third of the vote on a ballot.
Wisconsin primary results
- See also: Presidential election in Wisconsin, 2016
| Wisconsin Republican Primary, 2016 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes | Delegates | |
|
Ted Cruz |
48.2% | 531,129 | 36 | |
| Donald Trump | 35.1% | 386,290 | 6 | |
| John Kasich | 14.1% | 155,200 | 0 | |
| Jeb Bush | 0.3% | 3,156 | 0 | |
| Ben Carson | 0.5% | 5,608 | 0 | |
| Chris Christie | 0.1% | 1,310 | 0 | |
| Carly Fiorina | 0.1% | 825 | 0 | |
| Jim Gilmore | 0% | 242 | 0 | |
| Mike Huckabee | 0.1% | 1,428 | 0 | |
| Rand Paul | 0.2% | 2,491 | 0 | |
| Marco Rubio | 1% | 10,569 | 0 | |
| Rick Santorum | 0% | 510 | 0 | |
| Other | 0.2% | 2,288 | 0 | |
| Totals | 1,101,046 | 42 | ||
| Source: The New York Times and Wisconsin Vote | ||||
Delegate allocation
Wisconsin had 42 delegates at the 2016 Republican National Convention. Of this total, 24 were district-level delegates (three for each of the state's eight congressional districts). District delegates were allocated on a winner-take-all basis; the candidate who won a plurality of the vote in a congressional district received all of that district's delegates.[10][11]
Of the remaining 18 delegates, 15 served at large. Wisconsin's at-large delegates were allocated on a winner-take-all basis. The candidate who won a plurality of the statewide vote received all of the state's at-large delegates. In addition, three national party leaders (identified on the chart below as RNC delegates) served as bound delegates to the Republican National Convention.[10][11]
Personal
Note: Please contact us if the personal information below requires an update.
Thompson is married with three children and eight grandchildren.[12]
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 CNN "Wisconsin Senate Race - 2012 Election Center"
- ↑ Campaign website "Bio"
- ↑ Campaign website "Issues" (dead link)
- ↑ Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "Ex-governor Tommy Thompson chairs John Kasich's Wisconsin campaign," March 14, 2016
- ↑ Hudson, WI Patch, "Former Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson Files Senate Papers With Federal Election Commission," accessed January 6, 2012
- ↑ WISN Primary Results
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Center for Politics, "Tilting the Toss Ups – the Eight Races That Will Decide the Senate" accessed April 9, 2012
- ↑ iWatch News, "Outside spending helps make Wisconsin Senate primary a tossup" accessed August 16, 2012
- ↑ Wisconsin State Journal, "Wisconsin GOP releases list of all 42 delegates to Republican National Convention," April 27, 2016
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Republican National Committee, "2016 Presidential Nominating Process," accessed October 6, 2015
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 CNN.com, "Republican National Convention roll call vote," accessed July 20, 2016 Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; name "rollcallvote" defined multiple times with different content - ↑ Campaign website "Bio"
