Contenders in key Wisconsin Senate race come out swinging after primaries

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Republican millionaire businessman Eric Hovde and Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin are wasting no time going after one another.

Hovde easily captured the GOP nomination on Tuesday, officially setting the field in Wisconsin’s closely watched Senate race. The seat in battleground Wisconsin is seen as essential for Democrats, who know they must win there if they hope to maintain majority control of the Senate. A win there for Republicans would dramatically increase their chances of gaining the upper hand in an election landscape that has Democrats defending far more Senate seats this year.

Hovde is banking on his deep pockets and an endorsement from former President Donald Trump to knock off 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 focused on Baldwin since he got into the race. He’s already poured $13 million of his personal wealth into the contest in just four months.

“Tammy Baldwin has been in Washington for twenty-five years and things have only gotten worse,” Hovde said in a statement after his primary win. “It’s time for change.”

Hovde said at a WisPolitics.com luncheon Wednesday that he expected Baldwin’s side to spend $100 million on the race and there was no way he would come close to matching it with his own money.

Hovde’s wealth, primarily his management of Utah-based Sunwest Bank and ownership of a $7 million Laguna Beach, California, estate, has been a key line of attack from Baldwin, who has tried to portray him as an outsider out of touch with Wisconsin values.

“Eric Hovde is a multi millionaire California bank owner who has insulted our seniors, our farmers, our moms, and just about everyone else in our great state,” Baldwin said in a statement after Hovde’s primary win Tuesday. “While he runs to put the wealthy and well connected like himself first, I will always stand up for the working people of Wisconsin.”

Hovde, who was born in Madison and owns a house there, pushed back against that claim Wednesday.

“Everybody here knows I’m not a Californian,” Hovde said at WisPolitics. “I’ve never been a resident of the state of California one year of my life.”

Baldwin launched a rural Wisconsin tour on Wednesday with a stop at a farm in Merrill before a brewery tour in Chippewa Falls in a key swing area of western Wisconsin. Hovde aired two new positive ads featuring his wife and others touting his charitable work and his battle with multiple sclerosis.

Television ads from Baldwin and her backers have focused on comments from Hovde espousing his opposition to abortion rights, appearing to denigrate the work ethic of farmers and the propriety of nursing home residents voting.

Hovde has accused Baldwin of distorting his comments, lying about his record and misleading voters.

Hovde’s ads have hit on national themes Republicans are using against Democrats this cycle: blaming Baldwin for high inflation, what he says is a failed border policy and crime. Hovde has also tried to paint Baldwin as a career politician too extreme for Wisconsin, an attack Republicans tried in both of her previous two winning Senate campaigns to no avail.

While Baldwin’s voting record is liberal, she has emphasized bipartisanship throughout the campaign. Her first television ad noted that her buy-American bill was signed into law by Trump. In July, she touted Senate committee approval of a bill she co-authored with Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance, that seeks to ensure that taxpayer-funded inventions are manufactured in the United States.

Baldwin won her first Senate race in 2012, against popular former Republican Gov. Tommy Thompson, by almost 6 points. She was aided that year by having former President Barack Obama on the ballot. He carried Wisconsin by nearly 7 points. In 2018, Baldwin cruised to reelection by 11 points over then-state Sen. Leah Vukmir.

That win is even more striking given that four of the past six presidential races in Wisconsin have been decided by less than a point. In that same 2018 election, Democrat Tony Evers defeated then-Gov. Scott Walker by just over 1 point.

Baldwin again finds herself on the ballot in a presidential year. But unlike 12 years ago, when Obama won by a comfortable margin in Wisconsin, the latest Marquette University Law School poll conducted July 24 through Aug. 1 showed the presidential contest in Wisconsin to be about even.

The same poll showed Baldwin slightly ahead of Hovde among likely voters.

Hovde said Wednesday that he wasn’t concerned.

“I’m going up against somebody who has spent their entire life in politics,” Hovde said. “I feel really good about where I am. The heart of this campaign will now start getting litigated.”

A win by Baldwin is critical for Democrats who are defending 23 seats in the Senate, including three held by independents who caucus with Democrats clinging to a 51-49 majority. That’s compared with just 11 seats that Republicans hope to keep in their column.

If elected, Hovde would be one of the richest members of the Senate, based on his campaign finance report. That filing showed he had assets worth between about $195 million and more than $564 million. Baldwin listed assets between $601,000 and nearly $1.3 million.