Brad Smith will face six-term Republican Rep. Glenn Grothman to represent Wisconsin's 6th Congressional District in November, following a narrow victory declared almost 18 hours after polls closed for the Aug. 11 Democratic primary election
Smith won the nomination with 51.1% of the votes, or 30,216 votes, while his opponent Amanda Bell obtained 48.9%, or 28,874, according to unofficial election results for the race that was called in the afternoon of Aug. 12.
In the general election, Smith and Grothman will also face two independent candidates, Mike Thurow and Elizabeth Fitzgibbon, and one Green Party candidate, Matthew Arndt, will are also vying for Grothman's seat.
The 6th Congressional District includes Ozaukee, Sheboygan, Manitowoc, Fond Du Lac, Green Lake, Marquette, Waushara, and Columbia counties, as well as parts of Dodge County and Winnebago counties.
Smith is a U.S. Army National Guard veteran and software company leader who has grown small businesses into large companies and served in executive roles at Fortune 500 companies and venture-backed startups, according to his campaign.
"Now is the time to come together and build on the energy we saw across this district," Smith wrote in a statement posted to FaceBook after the race was called. "This is our opportunity. Let's work together, bring more people into this campaign, defeat Glenn Grothman and win in November."
Grothman has represented the 6th Congressional District in U.S. Congress since 2015. Before that, he served in the Wisconsin State Assembly from 1993 until 2005 and in the Wisconsin Senate from 2005 to 2015. His campaign did not have immediate comment.
Smith is a political newcomer who grew up in the district and has been critical of Grothman's "rubber-stamping" of Trump administration policies, as Smith put it in an interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ahead of the primary election.
Smith called out Grothman's support for Medicare and Medicaid cuts in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and the ongoing Iran war, which he said is driving up costs for working people and families.
Smith's campaign focuses on addressing rising costs of living, labor protections, rural policies, affordable and accessible healthcare, affordable housing, education reforms and hyperscale artificial intelligence data center regulations.
On AI, Smith said his goal is to harness the good, such as more accurate cancer screenings, while mitigating the bad, pointing to misinformation and deepfakes.
The 6th Congressional District includes two of Wisconsin's three hyperscale AI data centers - a Meta project in Beaver Dam and another for Oracle and OpenAI in Port Washington. Data centers have emerged as a key issue in this race and others over the last year.
Bell, Smith's opponent in the primary, is a former water scientist and U.S. Geological Survey deputy director who left after the Trump administration's Department of Government Efficiency cuts significantly downsized her team and cancelled many of their research contracts, according to her campaign
The two independent candidates and the green part candidate are also political newcomers.
Thurow is a fire captain with the Milwaukee Fire Department who has previously worked for homeless health care center, according to his campaign.
Fitzgibbon is an advocate who entered politics after a personal family law case that originated in Winnebago County highlighted administrative errors and corrective failures in the court system, according to her campaign.
Arndt is a certified public accountant and the owner of a tax and investment advisory firm in Mequon, according to his campaign.
According to the latest Federal Election Commission data, Smith has raised $165,378 with many donations through ActBlue. He has spent $105,780.41.
Bell had raised $35,000 with significant contributions from herself.
Grothman has raised $928,300 with many donations through WinRed. He has spent $621,773.56.
Thurow has raised $169,862. Fitzgibbons and Arndt both reported to the FEC they had not spent or received more than $5,000.
Contact Claudia Levens at [email protected]. Follow her on X at @levensc13.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Democrat Brad Smith wins primary to take on U.S. Rep. Glenn Grothman