Hovde concedes 12 days after Wisconsin Senate race call, blames Dem-recruited 3rd-party candidate

Republican businessman Eric Hovde finally conceded defeat on Monday in a razor-thin race for a U.S. Senate seat in Wisconsin, claiming that a Democrat-recruited third-party candidate siphoned off the votes that would have secured him the victory.

Hovde, a multimillionaire bank owner and real estate developer, posted his concession video on social media 12 days after the race was called in favor of Democratic incumbent Tammy Baldwin.

Hovde could have requested a recount, which he would have had to pay for himself, because his margin of defeat was less than 1 percentage point at about 29,000 votes, though he said he did not want to "add to political strife through a contentious recount."

The Republican candidate repeated claims in the video that he first made last week, saying there were "many troubling issues" related to absentee ballots in Milwaukee and when they were reported. Republicans, Democrats and nonpartisan election leaders all refuted the claims of impropriety Hovde made.

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