Eric Hovde, the man hoping to unseat two-term U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, stopped in Shawano on April 15 to seek support from the Shawano County Republican Party as he hopes to help return the Senate to GOP control.
No one else has declared candidacy on the Republican side, so Hovde’s full efforts are expected to be on Baldwin and her record over the last 12 years. Hovde was quick to deflect claims that he lives in California, even though many of his business operations are in the West Coast state, saying he moved his family back to Wisconsin in 2012 after previously being raised in the state.
Hovde noted that he immediately started traveling around Wisconsin after declaring his candidacy.
“The first couple of days, I literally drove 860 miles — first to the south side of Milwaukee to meet with Black and Hispanic leaders, then went on to Green Bay and then on to Wausau to Eau Claire to Hayward to La Crosse and then back home,” Hovde said. “At every stop, I was meeting with people, companies, doing press, getting the word out there. I’ve been on the move ever since.”
Hovde noted he’s made a point of meeting with the media, saying that Baldwin avoids reporters with radio and print media.
“Literally every day, I’m doing radio or meeting with reporters,” Hovde said. “Unlike her, who just hides herself and comes into the state for a week and does a bunch of staged events every month or two, I’m out and about, meeting with people and talking to people.”
Hovde said people should expect the same level of visibility from him if he wins the election and joins Ron Johnson in representing Wisconsin’s interests in the Senate. He challenged Baldwin to meet with him in a debate, but questions if that will actually happen.
“I will never run from a television interview or radio interview or from a reporter,” Hovde said. “I’ll always make myself open and address any and all questions. If you’re a senator, you should make yourself accessible to the press and to the people of the state. I cannot believe how she can get away with how she avoids going on radio. I won’t just go on conservative radio; I’ll go on radio of any kind.”
Hovde operates multiple companies, which has required him to provide health insurance to his employees. He criticized Baldwin for siding with Democrats on setups that make health care unaffordable for many, even those who have taken out insurance.
“I understand all too well how our economy works and how our health care system works,” Hovde said. “She doesn’t.”
Hovde also attacked Baldwin’s voting record, which he claimed is over 95% in favor of President Joe Biden’s record. He vowed that, even if he becomes a senator and Donald Trump becomes president, he will not always side with Trump’s plans.
“I agreed with probably 80% of President Trump’s positions, but I did not like the amount of debt we took on during his presidency,” Hovde said. “We’re destroying our country with the amount of debt. By the way, all this debt and all this spending is creating the inflation that’s impacting everybody in this country. Look at the price of food. Look at the price of gas. Look at the price of your insurance.”
Stopping the “crazy spending” is the key to bringing prices down to a more manageable level, according to Hovde. He noted the larger bumps in inflation have been since the coronavirus pandemic in 2020.
“During COVID, they increased spending by 40%,” Hovde said, noting that the United States opened back up to commerce in 2021. “They still kept the spending. Now, did our population go up by 40%? No. Why is spending still up by 40%. The quickest way to do it is to take spending back to 2019 levels and then start a plan to get off all of this deficit spending. That’ll real quickly start adjusting prices, because they won’t have to print all that additional money.”
Hovde hasn’t yet endorsed a candidate for the 8th Congressional District seat, now that Mike Gallagher has stepped down. He had words of praise for Roger Roth and Andre Jacque, but admitted he hasn’t met the newcomer, Tony Wied.
lpulaski@newmedia-wi.com
Hovde stops in Shawano during Senate quest
