MADISON, Wis. — Republican millionaire businessman Eric Hovde and Democratic Senator Tammy Baldwin don’t waste any time and go straight after each other.
Head easy captured the GOP nomination on Tuesday, officially clearing the field for the closely watched Wisconsin Senate race. The battleground seat in Wisconsin is seen as crucial for Democrats, who know they must win there if they hope to retain their Senate majority. A win there for Republicans would dramatically improve their chances of gaining the upper hand in an election landscape in which Democrats are defending many more Senate seats this year.
Hovde is counting on his deep pockets and an endorsement from former President Donald Trump to defeat Baldwin, a liberal Democrat who has honed her ability to appeal to key independent and moderate voters. He faced only nominal opposition in the primary and has been laser-focused on Baldwin since entering the race, pouring $13 million of his personal fortune into the fight in just four months.
“Tammy Baldwin has been in Washington for 25 years and things have only gotten worse,” Hovde said in a statement after his primary victory. “It’s time for change.”
Hovde’s wealth, particularly his management of Sunwest Bank in Utah and his ownership of a $7 million estate in Laguna Beach, California, has been a major attack point for Baldwin, who has tried to portray him as an outsider out of touch with Wisconsin values.
“Eric Hovde is a multimillionaire California bank owner who has insulted our seniors, our farmers, our mothers and nearly everyone in our great state,” Baldwin said in a statement after Hovde’s victory in Tuesday’s primary. “While he runs to put the wealthy and well-connected like himself first, I will always stand up for the working people of Wisconsin.”
Baldwin launched a tour of rural Wisconsin on Wednesday, stopping at a farm in Merrill before touring a brewery in Chippewa Falls. key swing area of western Wisconsin. Hovde aired two new positive ads featuring his wife and others who are charity work and are fight against multiple sclerosis.
Television ads by Baldwin and her supporters have focused on comments Hovde made against abortion rights, seemingly discrediting the work ethic of farmers and the appropriateness of nursing home residents’ right to vote.
“It’s clear that he’s spent more time on his private beach in California than he has on a factory floor or a family farm here in Wisconsin,” Baldwin said last week at a rally in western Wisconsin for Vice President Kamala Harris. Baldwin has embraced her candidacy, appearing at both of Harris’ Wisconsin rallies since she replaced President Joe Biden as the nominee. Baldwin has not always appeared with Biden when he has been in the state.
Hovde accuses Baldwin of distorting his statements, lying about his record and misleading voters.
Hovde’s ads have touched on national themes that Republicans have used against Democrats this cycle: blaming Baldwin for high inflation, what he calls failed border policies and crime. Hovde has also tried to paint Baldwin as a career politician too extreme for Wisconsin, an attack Republicans tried unsuccessfully in her previous two winning Senate campaigns.
Although Baldwin’s voting record is liberal, she has emphasized bipartisanship during the campaign. In her first TV ad, she noted that her Buy American Act was signed into law by Trump. In July, she touted the Senate Judiciary Committee’s approval of a bill she co-authored with Trump’s running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance, that would ensure that taxpayer-funded inventions are manufactured in the United States.
Baldwin won her first Senate race in 2012, against popular former Republican Governor Tommy Thompson, by nearly 6 points. She was helped on the ballot that year by former President Barack Obama, who won Wisconsin by nearly 7 points. In 2018, Baldwin sailed to re-election by 11 points over then-Senator Leah Vukmir.
That victory is even more notable given that four of the last six presidential elections in Wisconsin have been decided by less than a point. In that same 2018 election, Democrat Tony Evers defeated then-Governor Scott Walker by just over 1 point.
Baldwin is back on the ballot in a presidential year. But unlike 12 years ago, when Obama won Wisconsin by a comfortable margin, Latest Marquette University Law School Poll A survey conducted from July 24 to August 1 found the presidential race in Wisconsin was about even.
The same poll showed that Baldwin was slightly ahead of Hovde among likely voters.
A Baldwin win is crucial for Democrats who Defending 23 seats in the Senate, including three held by independents who align with Democrats and cling to a 51-49 majority. That’s compared to just 11 seats Republicans hope to keep in their column.
If elected, Hovde would be one of the wealthiest members of the Senate, based on his campaign finance report. That filing showed he had assets worth between $195 million and more than $564 million. Baldwin listed assets as between $601,000 and nearly $1.3 million.