Republican lawmaker Eric Hovde made his Wisconsin Senate bid official on Tuesday, giving the GOP a boost to its efforts in a key battleground state, to face off against Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin.
Hovde, who is a Madison-area businessman, gives the Republican Party a potentially formidable candidate in what is considered a tricky state that has valued incumbency in the last few years.
Eric Hovde Launches Wisconsin Senate Bid
In his launch video, Hovde said that it felt as though the United States was "slipping away" before he checked off a laundry list of issues, which include the economy and the border. He added that everything was going in the wrong direction, claiming that all Washington does is divide the people and exchange blame.
Hovde's Senate bid announcement is being greeted as welcome news in national GOP circles as Sen. Steve Daines has, for months, been hailing the businessman as the top choice of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, as per The Hill.
The state of Wisconsin was the last remaining contest without a standout Senate GOP candidate and Republican lawmakers have been looking for someone to take on Baldwin. The latter has proven it to be difficult to beat in both of her previous two Senate races.
With Hovde stepping up to the plate, Republicans get a battle-tested candidate who is prepared to spend big on the senatorial race. He narrowly lost to former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson, a Republican, during the 2012 GOP Senate primary. Baldwin then went on to defeat Thompson in the general election.
Furthermore, Hovde is expected to spend roughly $20 million of his own money on the Senate contest. Daines said that his colleague's experience as a job creator rather than a career politician makes him a strong candidate to slip Wisconsin's Senate this year.
Challenging Tammy Baldwin
Hovde is the CEO of several companies, including Hovde Properties, a family-founded real estate development company. He also leads H Bancorp, which is a multi-bank holding company as well as Sunwest Bank, which is a subsidiary of H Bancorp, according to CBS News.
During an interview, Daines praised Hovde, saying that the latter has been focused on his private-sector career and building jobs and building businesses. The situation comes as Baldwin is seeking her third term in Wisconsin and her seat is a target for the GOP who wish to take control of the Senate in November.
During the last two presidential elections, the winner of the battleground state has been determined by less than a single percentage point. In 2016, former United States President Donald Trump beat Hillary Clinton by a 0.8% margin, and in 2020, Joe Biden beat his predecessor by a mere 0.6%.
Baldwin used the news of Hovde's Senate bid to ask for campaign donations, posting on social media that this year's race will be her "most competitive and expensive" so far. In a statement, a spokesman for the Wisconsin Democratic Party said that Hovde would put "ultrarich people like himself ahead of middle-class Wisconsinites," said the New York Times.
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