Trailing in the polls, GOP senate candidate Eric Hovde calls for more debates

On his first full day as his party’s nominee, Republican Senate candidate Eric Hovde pushed back against claims made against him during the campaign, stood by his decision to file a defamation lawsuit earlier this month and called for more general election debates. 

Speaking at a WisPolitics luncheon in Madison, Hovde said he would like “multiple” debates with incumbent Democrat Tammy Baldwin, who he has consistently trailed in polls. He named La Crosse, Rhinelander and Wausau as possible locations. He also said he would meet Baldwin at either of their alma maters. 

“Even her high school, Madison West, tried to organize the debate. I went to Madison East, she went to Madison West. She wouldn’t even get back to ’em,” he said. “I said, I’ll show up over to Madison West. So if she is willing to engage in debates, I’ll be there anytime, any place, anywhere.”

Hovde and Baldwin have agreed to a debate at WMTV-TV in Madison on October 18.

Hovde has also agreed to participate in debates hosted by Milwaukee’s WISN-TV and Green Bay’s WFRV-TV. Baldwin has not signed on.

The Baldwin campaign’s response to WPR did not indicate an interest in additional debates. 

“Tammy has agreed to a statewide debate and is traveling the state meeting voters where they are. Just yesterday she was in Green Bay meeting with public school teachers, and today she is traveling across Northern and Western Wisconsin, launching her ‘Rural Leaders for Tammy’ coalition with a farm tour in Merrill and a brewery tour at an iconic Wisconsin brewery,” campaign spokeswoman Jackie Rosa wrote in a statement. 

Hovde conceded he is behind in the polls. A Marquette University Law School poll last week showed Baldwin leading by seven percentage points among registered voters. 

Responding to questions from attendees at the luncheon, Hovde reiterated his support for former President Donald Trump in the presidential race. He also voiced support for access to contraception. 

“I am supportive of contraception. I have no problem with contraception,” he said.

After initially conflating morning-after pills with mifepristone, used in medical abortions, Hovde agreed they were two separate medications when confronted by an audience member. 

Asked by WisPolitics President Jeff Mayers if he would try to stop women in states with abortion restrictions from obtaining abortion drugs by mail, Hovde said, “You’re not changing that.”

“We can all talk in theory, let’s just talk in reality,” he said. “That pill will be around and just like hard narcotics transfer from state to state or from other countries into our country, medications move all over our country. And that’s just reality.”

Hovde also spoke about his decision to file a lawsuit against a political action committee and media companies for an ad calling him a “multimillionaire California banker.” The ad also claims Hovde’s family “rigged the system to rake in $30 million in government subsidies and loans, and now he’s sheltering his wealth in shady tax havens around the world.”

Hovde disputed those characterizations on Wednesday. 

“My bank never took any government money,” he said. “The only thing they can cite is my development company using TIF money, which is the farthest thing from a rigged system. It’s a very public system. And again, that’s not my bank.”

Tax incremental financing, or TIF, allows a municipality to pay for public improvements and other eligible costs within a designated area, using the future taxes collected on increased property value to repay the cost of the improvements, according to the League of Wisconsin Municipalities. 

Hovde disputed the claim that he has “offshore tax havens.” 

“I have zero offshore tax havens, and they have no basis for that. They cited, some of my companies are based in Delaware. Seventy percent of all corporate America is based in Delaware. Not for tax reasons, for legal reasons,” he said.

In a letter to television stations airing the commercials, the law firm representing the WinSenate political action committee that funded the ads said the PAC stands by the content. “There is absolutely nothing false about the claims in this advertisement,” the letter states.

Speaking to reporters after the event, Hovde said he hopes the lawsuit will result in penalties against the political action committee that made the ad in question and media organizations that aired it. 

“You can be held liable for going to that extreme level,” he said of the ad about tax havens, which he called “totally fictitious.” 

Legal challenges to campaign advertising are unusual because of First Amendment free speech protections.

“Cases about false statements in campaign ads, as a general matter, are quite rare,” Erin Chlopak, senior director for Campaign Finance at the Campaign Legal Center, told WPR this week. “Because they will almost always, if not always, fail.”