GOP businessman Eric Hovde tonight repeatedly charged Dem U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin has lied about his record during their first and only debate.
He also accused her of a conflict of interest for not disclosing the financial holdings of her partner, a financial adviser.
Baldwin, meanwhile, accused Hovde of supporting the “Hovde plan” that would result in cuts to programs such as Social Security and chided him at one point to “stay out” of her personal life.
Hovde at a public event in Milwaukee earlier this month said he supported rolling back federal spending to 2019 levels. Baldwin has seized upon that to insist that would mean broad cuts to popular programs, and she cited that in charging Hovde’s plan would cut Social Security by 28%, an average of $500 a month. She said Hovde supports the rollback of spending in order to pay for a “$4 trillion tax giveaway.”
“He supports spending, just not for you,” Baldwin said.
Hovde fired back, “The one thing you have perfected in Washington is your ability to lie.”
Hovde added he supports increasing the retirement age for younger people because life expectancy has increased.
Hovde repeatedly turned his fire on Baldwin during the hourlong debate sponsored by the Wisconsin Broadcasters Association, often turning to face her as he delivered the broadsides. When she threw charges at her opponent, Baldwin kept her focus straight ahead at the camera.
During an early exchange, Baldwin said Hovde had called “stupid” a provision she pushed in the Affordable Care Act to allow people to remain on their parents’ insurance until they turn 26. She said Hovde said “many times” that he opposed legislation that sought to end a prohibition on negotiating drug prices.
Hovde fired back it was “one lie after another,” he supports negotiating drug prices and charged it’s “your Wall Street partner who invests in Big Pharma. You oversee it.” Hovde didn’t mention Baldwin’s partner Maria Brisbane by name. The New York financial adviser has been regularly featured in ads by Hovde and those groups that support him, and have suggested Baldwin has a conflict of interest because she doesn’t disclose Brisbane’s financial interest.
Hovde brought up Brisbane again later in the debate during a question about whether there should be a judicial code of conduct for the U.S. Supreme Court.
That prompted Baldwin to fire back, “Eric Hovde should stay out of my personal life, and I think I speak for most Wisconsin women when I say he should stay out of all of our personal lives.”
Hovde insisted he couldn’t care less about her personal life and only cares about what he believes is a conflict of interest.
Also during the debate:
- Hovde said Baldwin “pushed to allow abortion to happen up to the point of delivery.” Baldwin while responding to a later question said, “Eric Hovde, that does not happen in America.”
When Hovde pressed Baldwin on at one point in pregnancy she wouldn’t support abortion, Baldwin did not respond.
- Hovde while debunking claims that he lives in California pulled out a piece of paper that he said was a utility bill. Hovde lives in Madison but also owns a home and bank in California. After the debate, the state Dem Party called on Hovde to disclose the utility bill for his California home.
- Baldwin, while defending a negative ad her campaign ran saying Hovde called farmers “lazy,” said Hovde has lied throughout his campaign, noting 19 fact checks have found he made false statements.
- Asked about a stalled farm bill in Congress, Hovde said he wasn’t an “expert” on the legislation. Baldwin touted her endorsement by the Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation.
- While answering a question on PFAS contamination in the state, Baldwin said she had worked to secure funding to address the issue in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
“Eric Hovde would have opposed the bipartisan infrastructure bill. That funding that I’ve secured for communities across the state, Wausau, Rhinelander, Peshtigo, would not have been available,” she said.
Hovde in response said contamination must be addressed, while knocking Baldwin for “constantly” saying he would have voted against certain legislation.
“And the reason why I would have voted … against a lot of these issues is really simple: it’s because we’re breaking our country financially. We’re driving ourselves off the cliff,” Hovde said.
The bickering even extended to who’s truly a graduate of UW-Madison. Hovde, defending his Wisconsin credentials, at one point declared, “I’m a UW grad. You’re not.”
Baldwin, who generally didn’t respond to Hovde’s broadsides, responded, “Yes, I am.”
But Hovde, whose company bio says he earned undergrad degrees in economics and international relations from the systems’ flagship campus, was dismissive of her answer saying, “Law school, not undergrad.”
Baldwin graduated from Smith College in 1984 and UW-Madison’s Law School in 1989.
