Eric Hovde, a Republican running for U.S. Senate, is airing his first TV ad of the campaign. It is part of a seven-figure statewide buy that his campaign said Monday will include several spots over the next month.
Hovde is a businessman who is worth a lot of money and is running against Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin. Even though she officially announced her run for a third term almost a year ago in April 2023, she hasn’t put out an ad yet. The first ad Hovde is running on Tuesday is the same one he posted on his website last week when he started his campaign.
He says that the economy, crime, health care, and “open borders” are all problems that the country has in the ad. In the spot, he doesn’t talk about Baldwin or Wisconsin.
It says in the ad, “Everything is going in the wrong direction.” “All Washington does is divide us and talk about who’s to blame and nothing gets done.”
Andrew Mamo, who works for Baldwin’s campaign, didn’t have anything to say.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee has backed Hovde, but other Republicans are thinking about running against him for the election. Two other people who are thinking about running for the Senate are Franklin businessman Scott Mayer and former Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke.
There are also two less well-known Republicans running: Stacey Klein, who is the supervisor of Trempealeau County, and Rejani Raveendran, who is a 40-year-old college student and the chair of the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point College Republicans.
Baldwin was re-elected in 2018 by 11 percentage points, and Democrats need her to win again this year if they want to keep the majority in the Senate. In November, Democrats are running for 23 Senate seats. Two of those seats are filled by independents who join the Democratic caucus. Republicans only want to keep 11 seats, while Democrats want to keep all of them.
