Senate Republicans are hopeful they can unseat Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) after two previous failed attempts.
Their confidence largely comes from their faith in businessman Eric Hovde, who is expected to enter the race next month. Sources familiar with the matter told the Hill that the belief in him largely comes from how much money he’d be willing to spend, with some saying that he could spend as much as $20 million.
“Wisconsin is going to be one of the top states. It’s a battleground for the presidential race. It’ll be a battleground state for the Senate. Eric Hovde … would be a great candidate,” Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT), chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, told the outlet.
“He’s been involved in a big campaign before, and it looks like he’s doing a really good job of preparing for the battle,” he continued. “That race is going to be really competitive.”
Given he hasn’t launched his campaign yet, Hovde’s political views are elusive, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel noted. Most of his public political statements come from 2012, his last attempt at the Senate, where he was defeated by former Republican Gov. Tommy Thompson. However, he had much to say about his rival, Baldwin, who entered office after defeating Thompson that year, saying he “fundamentally” disagrees with her on “almost everything.”
“Her philosophy has its roots in Marxism, communism, socialism, extreme liberalism — she calls it progressivism — versus mine, which is rooted in free-market conservatism,” he said at the time, in an interview with the Hill.
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Talks of his run grew in December when Democrats began a wave of attacks against him. In a statement to the Washington Examiner at the time, Hovde brushed off the attacks against him, which were mostly portraying him as a MAGA extremist and cruel real estate developer, as “silly and stupid.”
“Most of them are lies,” he said of the attacks. “Obviously they are very worried given I haven’t even announced anything.”
