Former Senator Russ Feingold announced today that he is seeking to return to the Senate with a rematch against the man who beat him in the Repubican wave election in 2010:
Democrat Russ Feingold announced Thursday morning his long-expected bid to win back his US Senate seat from Ron Johnson, the Republican who defeated him in 2010.
Feingold made the announcement in a short video, saying he wanted to “bring back to the US Senate strong independence, bipartisanship and honesty.”
A Johnson-Feingold race would be a rare rematch of Senate opponents.
And it would easily rank as one of the top Senate race in the country in 2016, fiercely contested by both parties.
In a poll taken last month by the Marquette University Law School, Feingold led Johnson 54% to 38%.
Johnson beat Feingold quite handily in 2010, but that was in a midterm election in a year that Republicans were doing very well. In 2016, the two men would meet again in a year where the electorate is likely to be far more favorable to Feingold than it was five years ago. Wisconsin could be an even more interesting state next year if Scott Walker ends up being the Republican nominee for President or is selected as the Vice-Presidential running mate.
Along with Senators such as Mark Kirk, Pat Toomey, and Kelly Ayotte, Johnson was already considered one of the more vulnerable Republicans in next year’s elections. Adding Feingold into the mix increases that vulnerability significantly.
