U.S. Navy SEAL veteran Derrick Van Orden has flipped a Wisconsin congressional seat to Republicans as that party edges closer to control of the House of Representatives.
Van Orden defeated Democratic state Sen. Brad Pfaff in a contest for the open seat left behind by retiring Democratic Rep. Ron Kind, who had held the seat since 1997, the Associated Press reported.
Van Orden led Pfaff by 4 points Tuesday afternoon with 96 percent of votes reported, according to results reported by the Associated Press.
Van Orden’s win and flip of a Democrat-held seat comes as Republicans are hopeful to flip control of the House of Representatives.
Van Orden won a district that has recently trended toward Republicans on the western border of Wisconsin, a state narrowly divided between Democrats and Republicans.
Van Orden joined the Navy when he was 18 and served 26 years before retiring as a senior chief in the SEALs, having been deployed into combat five times, according to his website. He was also one of several active-duty SEALs to appear in the 2012 film “Act of Valor.”
Van Orden was endorsed by former President Donald Trump, and was pictured posing with a group of protesters outside the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 riot that led to Trump’s second impeachment, as reported by the Daily Beast.
His presence at the riot was a line of attack for Pfaff, who said it should have disqualified him from running, AP reported.
In an op-ed, Van Orden wrote that the riot was “one of the most tragic incidents in the history of our nation.” He said he left the area after “a protest had become a mob” and never entered the Capitol.
Just before 3 a.m. the morning after Election Day, Van Orden tweeted, “Gratitude.”
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