Wisconsin has a little-known GOP primary for US Senate Tuesday

For months now, Wisconsin’s U.S. Senate race has been framed as a battle between Republican business executive Eric Hovde and Democratic incumbent Tammy Baldwin. But there are two other GOP candidates in Tuesday’s primary election.

Hovde faces Rejani Raveendran of Stevens Point and Charles Barman of the Village of Sharon in Walworth County.

Both have their work cut out for them. Hovde has spent millions of dollars on his race and has endorsements from the Republican Party of Wisconsin and former President Donald Trump.

But neither Raveendran nor Barman has offered so much as a hint that they’re conceding the race, and both say they’re better choices than Hovde.

Here’s a look at all the GOP primary candidates.

Rejani Raveendran

Raveendran said she believes she’s the best person to represent the people of Wisconsin and that’s why she’s stayed in the race. 

“There is something called conviction, and there is something called decency, and there is something called faithfulness,” Raveendran said. “I have thousands of people behind me, and I’m not going to betray them.”

Raveendran is a senior at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point pursuing a degree in political science and a certificate in international relations. She chairs the UWSP College Republicans group, is a single mother and has worked as a registered nurse and midwife. 

Raveendran told WPR she immigrated to America in 2011 from India, and last year, traveled to Washington D.C. for a school trip.

“When I met with these politicians and lobbyists, I realized one thing: The corruption in D.C. is way bigger than the people of Wisconsin can imagine,” she said. 

Raveendran said she’s experienced poverty and homelessness during her life, which she said differentiates her from Hovde, who is a millionaire. 

“If you are born a millionaire, if you’re raised a millionaire and if you made $1 million, how do you know how a person with homelessness or hunger or poverty or pain feels like?” Raveendran said. 

Raveendran said she was compelled to run for U.S. Senate because of the direction the country is going.

“This is one of the seats I believe, I truly believe, that we have to replace with a conservative because of the sexual mutilation and the perversion of our children, because of the indoctrination happening in the schools,” Raveendran said. 

She said she feels decisions about transitioning genders should wait until a person turns 18. Her comments stand in contrast to a wide range of health groups, which have affirmed support for transgender care for youth.

Other top issues for Raveendran include the growing national debt and border security. 

During the Republican Party of Wisconsin’s convention in June, Hovde was formally nominated as the party’s candidate in the push to unseat Baldwin. But shortly after the voice vote, there was a motion to let Raveendran speak to convention delegates. It was ruled out of order because Raveendran didn’t meet the party’s criteria to be considered for the nomination. 

“I got 45 days notice, maybe, that we have to raise $1 million,” Raveendran said. “You and I both know that for a regular person, it is an impossible thing, but that is one of the criteria the party came up with to weed all other candidates and just to have my primary opponent as the candidate.”

Raveendran claims county Republican party chairs were told not to display her campaign signs or literature, which she calls “a big obstacle.” A spokesperson for the Republican Party of Wisconsin told WPR the signs weren’t allowed because Hove was endorsed at the convention. 

A federal campaign finance report in July showed Raveendran raised a total of $37,912 for her race, which includes a $10,000 personal loan. Hovde’s July report shows he raised a total of $16,726,282 this year, including $13 million in personal loans. 

Charles Barman

Barman, who’s from the Village of Sharon, spoke with WPR on his way into the Wisconsin State Fair to meet voters and hand out business cards. He grew up on a dairy farm and is now a construction superintendent, which he said has included work on multi-million dollar jobs on high rises in Chicago. 

Barman said he decided to run for Senate after the Kenosha riots in 2020, following the police shooting of Jacob Blake. He criticized Republican U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil and Democratic Gov. Tony Evers for not doing more to prevent the violence. 

“You don’t want to reward bad behavior and vote for Tammy (Baldwin),” Barman said. “You want somebody that’s going to turn around and straighten this mess out.”

Barman said he met Hovde at a June Trump rally in Racine, where he claims Hovde told him he didn’t know he had primary opponents. While he wants to replace Baldwin in the Senate, Barman said she’s indirectly helping his campaign.

“Tammy Baldwin, right now, is my best friend,” Barman said. “She runs all the negative ads on (Hovde).” 

Barman said he was also happy to see Trump endorse Hovde this summer.

“Because anybody that ever gets endorsed by Trump loses,” Barman said. 

Barman, who owns Swingbelly Farm in Sharon, said his “lifelong lessons” learned from growing up on a dairy farm and working in construction means he can relate to people in Wisconsin better than Hovde.

“I’m the one that’s out here,” Barman said. “I’m the one in the pig barn, I’m the one in the dairy barn. I’m the one talking to people.”

He said he sent letters to county GOP chairs about his campaign and only heard back from one, who told him Hovde was the endorsed candidate and, therefore, would receive their support. 

There are no federal campaign finance reports from Barman in this race because he said he’s got “zero dollars, OK?”

This isn’t Barman’s first run for U.S. Senate. In 2018, he landed fifth in a Republican primary for U.S. Senate. In 2022, Barman also ran against Steil in Wisconsin’s 1st Congressional District under “The Going Away Party,” but received less than 1 percent of the vote.

Despite GOP primary, Hovde’s focus is on Baldwin

Since it was launched in February, Hovde’s campaign has framed the Senate race as a two-way competition between himself and Baldwin.

Hovde told WPR he’s met Raveendran “on the circuit at different GOP events” and described her as a good person working tirelessly on her campaign. He said he doesn’t really know Barman. 

Hovde called his GOP rivals’ critiques of him as not having much in common with Wisconsinites “absolutely ridiculous” and shows they don’t know how he went about building his companies and the charitable work he’s done through the Hovde Foundation. Hovde said he interacts with Wisconsinites every day he walks into his Madison offices. 

“So, I just find it ironic,” Hovde said of criticisms from Barman and Raveendran. “Because I’ve been successful, now I’m ‘out of touch.’ That’s the whole line that Sen. Baldwin is trying to make.”

Hovde said his knowledge of how the globalized economy works, his experience building multiple companies and his work running his foundation differentiates him from his fellow Republican candidates. Hovde’s foundation builds homeless shelters for children in Africa, Central and South America.

Hovde said the economy, inflation, rising costs for health care and housing, along with illegal border crossings are the main issues he’s concerned about in the race.

“People are struggling out there really badly,” Hovde said. “You know, inflation that has been ignited in the last three-and-a-half years has dropped real incomes by 2.2 percent, and I understand how the economy works and how to get this fixed.” 

In nearly every poll of Wisconsin voters this cycle, Baldwin has led Hovde. A Marquette University Law School poll released Wednesday showed her leading among registered voters by 7 percentage points, but Hovde said he’s “actually pretty pleased where I’m sitting at this point in time.”

He said no other Republican Senate candidate has had more money spent on attack ads against than him this cycle, which he calls a sign that Baldwin “has nothing to run on.”

“So, I’m pretty amazed at how well I’m doing with that assault, and I’m going to keep talking about the issues at this point,” said Hovde.

He said Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson was trailing at the same point in his 2022 reelection bid and wound up winning.

Hovde is widely expected to win Wisconsin’s Republican primary this week and a defeat by Raveendran or Barman would represent a major upset.

The winner will face Baldwin on Nov. 5.