Leibham Concedes, Leaving Grothman The Victor In Congressional Primary

State Sen. Joe Leibham has conceded a victory to state Sen. Glenn Grothman in the congressional Republican primary in Wisconsin’s 6th District.

The AP initially declared Grothman in the late evening of Election Day on Aug. 12, before all precincts had reported their votes. In the early morning of the next day, precincts in Sheboygan began reporting vote totals that heavily favored Leibham, who quickly began to catch up to Grothman. Later in the morning, the AP rescinded its declaration that Grothman had won.

The unofficial vote total from the AP left Leibham trailing Grothman by just 214 votes. The official canvas released this week by the Government Accountability Board came up with a similar result.

Leibham announced on that he would not seek a recount on Friday afternoon, soon after the official numbers were released.

Now that he has won his primary, Grothman is heavily favored to win the general election against his Democratic opponent, Mark Harris. Should he win, the conservative firebrand would replace U.S. Rep. Tom Petri in Congress, who is retiring after having represented the district for more than 30 years.

Grothman posted the following on Facebook on Friday evening: