in this race senator cowles had been considered the safest of the six republicans facing recall tonight. the petition to recall him was the last one to be filed, and in a set of elections that was drenched in campaign cash the total spending on both sides of the cowles race was reported to be the lowest of all the recall races. again, with 94% of precincts reporting, this race long called the recall the republican, excuse me, state senator, the incumbent robert cowles having fended off nancy nusbaum as the democratic challenger. also, district 10 tonight, that was the second race called tonight. the republican incumbent, state senator sheila harsdorf, has kept her seat, defeating her democratic challenger, shelly moore. this is 100% of precincts reporting. the final tally there, harsdorf with 58% of the vote, shelly moore with 42% of the vote. so a comfortable margin there for sheila harsdorf in district 10. early on senator harsdorf had
sheila harsdorf and robert cowles. the two democrats that progressives in the state were counting on winning have won tonight. jessica king in the 18th district has defeated randy hopper. and jennifer shilling has defeated dan kapanke. we continue with more results here in madison with one race yet to be called. stay with us. we re right back. at progressiv, you can compare rates side by side, so you get the same coverage, often for less. wow! that is huge! [ disco playing ] and this is to remind you that you could save hundreds! yeah, that ll certainly stick with me. we ll take it. go, big money! i mean, go. it s your break, honey. same coverage, more savings. now, that s progressive. call or click today.
from madison, wisconsin our coverage continues. and this programming note. we will continue with coverage into the last word with lawrence o donnell tonight. let me bring you up to date. two republicans have been declared the winner in six of these races tonight. as expected, sheila harsdorf and also senator robert cowles. but we have more to report. 39% reporting in the 8th district. sandy pasch is leaving leading alberta darling 56% to 44% with 39% of the vote reporting. let s go now to senator lina taylor with us tonight here on the ed show. senator, good to have you with us. it s great to be with you, ed. what is this this would be considered a huge victory for the democrats if sandy pasch were able to pull this out. not even half the vote has been counted yet, but it is a good margin of a lead for her right
this one. he did some robo-calls for nancy nusbaum. and our condolences go out to nancy. she lost her mother on friday. and it has been obviously that event has tempered the intensity in the race. but that is one that cowles is expected to win. that s one the republicans are counting on. absolutely. now, one thing i want to emphasize, ed, is all of these districts are republican districts drawn by the redistricting ten years ago to be won by republicans and that have been consistently won by republicans over the last several decades. so in all of them the republicans should be in good shape. in some, like the cowles district, that really has a lot of republican turf in it. so that s a tall order. others like the jen schilling district over in lacrosse, that s one that has been trending democratic and should go. and the other republican that is expected to win tonight by the oddsmakers, so to speak, would be sheila harsdorf in the 10th district in hudson, wisconsin.
and telling him what needs to be done to pick up some of these senate seats. and we are being told now that the associated press is calling the 10th district in hudson, wisconsin. sheila harsdorf has defeated shelly moore. that too was an expected victory by the experts, an expected victory for the republicans. so the two expected districts by the republicans have been won tonight. in the 2nd district robert cowles, who s been in the senate for 24 years, has won and fought off the recall. and also sheila harsdorf, the associated press now calling that. she s victorious over shelly moore. your thoughts on that, senator carpenter. that s not a surprise. a lot of things are going to change. as senator jauch had said, there will be ebbs and flows, ebbs and flows. we all knew it was going to be difficult. it would be an uphill battle with the money on the other side and the governor s ties to big special interest groups. but i m still optimistic that