SMP Statement on Eric Hovde’s Senate Campaign Launch

SMP Statement on Eric Hovde’s Senate Campaign Launch

First, Rep. Mike Gallagher decided not to run for Senate, even after months of pushing from Mitch McConnell and National Republicans. Then Rep. Tom Tiffany bowed out. Now, after months of searching (and many more months waiting for an announcement), McConnell’s last choice has finally entered Wisconsin’s Senate GOP primary.

Eric Hovde is a hedge fund manager who wants to ban abortion and even make it harder for women to access birth control. He’s best known as a previously failed political candidate and a man with seriously limited ties to the state. Hovde lived in Washington D.C. for most of his professional life, only moving back to Wisconsin to lose a GOP primary in 2012. Since then, he’s spent years living in a luxe Laguna Beach, California mansion and was even named one of Orange County’s most influential people – three years in a row. This morning, it was revealed that Hovde had another home in Washington D.C. that he transferred ownership of to his brother just ahead of his campaign launch, hoping no one would notice.

If Wisconsinites know Hovde at all, it is as the man with a weirdly cruel vendetta against a 90-year-old family-owned bar in Madison that he had shut down and plans to demolish.

Entering the race as Mitch McConnell’s last-resort candidate, Hovde increases the odds that Wisconsin Republicans will barrel into a brutal GOP primary fight. As a reminder, fringe Sheriff David Clarke and former race car driver Scott Mayer continue to weigh their own Senate bids.

Senate Majority PAC Spokesperson Hannah Menchhoff released the following statement:

“Mitch McConnell was so desperate to find someone – anyone – to run in Wisconsin’s GOP Senate primary after his top choices refused that he was forced to look all the way to California to find his C-list recruit, Eric Hovde. Hovde is an out of touch hedge fund manager who’s built his career catering to millionaires and billionaires. He wants to ban abortion and rip away Wisconsinites’ health care. Hovde’s campaign does nothing but kickstart what will inevitably become another brutal battle to the MAGA extreme. Thankfully, Wisconsinites know they can always count on Senator Baldwin to cut through the politics to deliver results.”

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