Michele Bachmann Wins Close Election

We may have lost Joe Walsh and Allen West, but we’ll still have Michele Bachmann around the halls of Congress for entertainment purposes:

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), founder of the Tea Party Caucus and an unsuccessful candidate for the GOP presidential nomination, hung on to her House seat by narrowly defeating challenger Jim Graves.

Bachmann, whose controversial statements leading up to the election included accusing President Obama of “apology and appeasement across the globe,” was declared the winner by the Associated Press with 98 percent of precincts reporting. She led Graves, a prominent businessman, by just over 3,000 votes out of nearly 350,000 votes cast.

Well, at least Jon Stewart will have material for the next two years.

FILED UNDER: 2012 Election, Congress, US Politics, , , , , ,
Doug Mataconis
About Doug Mataconis
Doug Mataconis held a B.A. in Political Science from Rutgers University and J.D. from George Mason University School of Law. He joined the staff of OTB in May 2010 and contributed a staggering 16,483 posts before his retirement in January 2020. He passed far too young in July 2021.

Comments

  1. PJ says:

    I’ve used Graves releasing internal polling showing him in striking distance of Bachmann as an example of the kind of polls you shouldn’t trust, since the campaign never releases all its polling, just polling that’s positive. While the main point is still true, one should distrust polls released by campaigns (like the internal polls the Romney campaign released a day or two ago), in this case he actually was close.

  2. wr says:

    @PJ: But it’s clear from the results that he was in striking distance — he just wasn’t quite close enough to seal the deal.

  3. Fiona says:

    Darn! Much as I enjoy the comic relief Bachman provides, I’d rather she provide it as a Fox News analyst as opposed to a member of Congress.

  4. Gustopher says:

    If we are going to have a Tea Party House of Representatives, I want the nuttiest, most off-putting House possible. Horrible policies advocated by people who are clearly insane is better than horrible policies advocated by people who can appear reasonable.

  5. Tillman says:

    Just a three thousand vote difference. Bet some nonvoters in that district are smarting a bit.