Wisconsin businessman Eric Hovde officially launched his Senate campaign Tuesday against Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) in a key battleground race that will ultimately give Republicans control of the chamber. He became a challenger.
His announcement made in a 30 second video, The move ends months of speculation over who will face Baldwin, a powerful and well-funded Republican incumbent.
“Our country faces big challenges: the economy, health care, crime and opening our borders. Everything is going in the wrong direction,” Hovde said in the video. Hovde then introduced himself and said, “I'm running for the United States Senate.”
In a speech later Tuesday, Hovde further focused on that message, slamming President Joe Biden and Democrats' record on these issues as well as the administration's chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.
“I love my country, but I'm running because I see my country failing everywhere I look today,” he said.
Mr. Hovde spoke from a building in Madison developed by his family's real estate company.
Mr. Hovde, a billionaire who owns a Madison-based real estate company and several West Coast banks, is expected to finance part of his campaign with his own funds. He also has the benefit of having run for office before and has some name recognition among voters, but a Marquette University School of Law poll last month found that more than 8 in 10 registered voters in the state It turned out that he did not have enough knowledge about Hovde to form an opinion.
But while Republicans see Wisconsin as one of the party's biggest opportunities for a breakthrough this fall, defeating Mr. Baldwin, a two-term senator and prolific fundraiser, will not be easy — even if he is vulnerable. Even in a presidential year with an incumbent Democrat at the top. .
This is largely due to the fact that state and national Democrats, who had been predicting Hovde's candidacy for several months, have decided against the newly endorsed candidate after two prominent Republicans decided not to run. This is due to the fact that they have been steadily attacking people on the grounds of their disadvantaged lives. He was recognized for his years of service to the state and for guiding banks worth billions of dollars.
Wasting no time in continuing that strategy, the Wisconsin Democratic Party criticized Hovde shortly after taking office, calling him “California Hovde.” That's because he owns a $7 million property in Laguna Beach and has lived in the state off and on ever since. year 2012.
“California banker Eric Hovde is running for the Senate to push his self-serving agenda, and he has no choice but to push his own agenda,” Arik Wolk, director of rapid response for the Wisconsin Democratic Party, said in a statement. “We're prioritizing the wealthy over middle-class Wisconsinites.” “California Hovde's selfish policies and attacks on the freedoms of Wisconsinites are exactly what will cause the people of Wisconsin to reject him and send him back to his $7 million California mansion.”
Baldwin's allies have also emphasized in the past few months the fact that Hovde was named one of Orange County's most powerful people in 2018.
Mr. Hovde's allies also attacked Baldwin fiercely.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee, the official campaign arm of the Senate Republicans, whose chairman, Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., had indicated in December that he would support Hovde's candidacy, announced Tuesday that In the afternoon, it released an ad slamming Mr. Baldwin. He criticized her for her statement that she needed to stay at home during the coronavirus pandemic and for not having her “special interest.”
“Tammy says one thing and does another,” says the ad's narrator.
Meanwhile, Daines praised Hovde in a statement.
“Eric Hovde's experience as a job creator, not a career politician, makes him a strong candidate to flip the Wisconsin Senate seat this year,” Daines said.
Mr. Hovde's political career in Wisconsin included an unsuccessful bid for the U.S. Senate in 2012, when he lost the Republican primary to former Gov. Tommy Thompson, and he defeated Baldwin in the general election. I lost to Mr. Hovde flirted with running again with Baldwin in 2018 and considered running for governor in 2022, but he decided not to run in either election.
Mr. Hovde's decision to run this year caps a monthslong Republican road trip in Wisconsin during which several leading candidates abandoned their challenge to Mr. Baldwin.
Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.), once considered a front-runner by national Republicans, announced in June that he would not run, and just this month announced that he would retire from Congress altogether. Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-Wis.) opposed the bid two months later.
But Hovde could still face an opponent in the race for the Republican nomination. Another Wisconsin businessman, Scott Mayer, has been on the run for months.
Asked by NBC News on Friday if he would enter the race, Mayer said in a text message that he “don't know” and would probably decide within “a month.”
Republicans have said they want to avoid a contentious primary between two wealthy businessmen.
Wisconsin Democrats have had some luck in recent years. Since Donald Trump's surprise victory in Wisconsin in the 2016 presidential election, Democrats and Democratic-leaning candidates have won 15 of the past 18 statewide elections.
But Republicans have proven they can still win statewide. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) won re-election to the seat in 2022, offering the party a roadmap for what Hovde's path to victory might look like.
More broadly, Democrats face an uphill battle in maintaining their Senate majority. Democrats must defend 23 seats in November, including two held by independents who caucus with Democrats, while Republicans must defend only 11 seats.
The nonpartisan Cook Political Report rates the Wisconsin Senate race as “lean Democratic.”
