MAGA donor GOP senate candidate’s 'middle road' approach may backfire: report

03 March 2024

A multi-millionaire California bank owner aiming to oust US Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) this fall believes his campaign message of unity will win over voters, but according to a Sunday, March 3 Daily Beast report, the feat may not be so easy for the GOP hedge fund manager.

Per the report, "despite all his calls for togetherness—and what some observers have deemed a 'meh' or 'weirdly lackluster' campaign kickoff—Hovde has long aligned himself with and donated to some of the most divisive and extreme Republicans."

Eric Hovde is set to be "a guest speaker alongside Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) at a Republican Party of Brown County dinner," next month, according to the Beast. "He already spoke at an event last fall with a Moms for Liberty activist and spent at least $8,000 as a sponsor of a conservative think-tank’s evening with Tucker Carlson, who used his air time to spout election fraud claims."

During his US Senate campaign launch last week, Hovde asked the audience gathered at one of his real estate company's properties, "Are you ready to be uniters and healers for your country? Are you ready to restore the American dream?"

In a similarly worded message via X (formerly Twitter), the 59-year-old wrote, "I don’t believe in the politics of destruction. That’s what has gotten us to where we are today. The worst problem facing our nation is the division. We are ripping apart our friendships and our families over politics. I’m in this fight to usher in a new brand of leadership and end politics as usual."

Supported by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), the Beast notes, Hovde will soon need "to kiss the Donald’s ring, especially at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee," University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee political science professor Kathleen Dolan told the news outlet.

"For him to generate interest, and for him to help generate that turnout, I think he’s got to be more of what the Republican voters here are going to expect," Dolan said. "He doesn’t want Trump to think that he isn’t as loyal as he can be. He doesn’t want Trump to question him at all. His best chance of getting elected is to ride on Trump’s coattails and ride on any Republican wave here in Wisconsin if it appears, and he can’t do that as successfully by taking this middle road."

Dolan also raised the question, "Is it just about his own sort of self-aggrandizement, or does he really want to be Senator from Wisconsin?" Noting that Hovde "'isn’t a visible person' and has the 'carpetbagger problem,' so Democrats will be working hard to shape his introduction to potential voters."

The Beast reports Hovde first launched his bid to enter Wisconsin politics in 2012, campaigning on the message of repealing "former President Obama’s Affordable Care Act. He also shared his support for overturning Roe v. Wade, saying he was 'totally opposed' to legalized abortion. His former campaign website declared, 'We must defend and protect all human life from conception to natural death.' (The site also announced he believes 'that marriage is between one man and one woman.')"

His senate campaign over a decade later, according to the report, notes that the multi-millionaire changed his abortion stance to "saying he supports exceptions for rape, incest, and to save the mother’s life."

Despite his efforts, Democratic Party of Wisconsin rapid response director Arik Wolk told the news outlet, "Eric Hovde will push a divisive out-of-touch agenda that bans abortion nationwide and repeals the Affordable Care Act. From bankrolling anti-choice politicians to standing with extremist figures like Tucker Carlson and Marjorie Taylor Greene, Wisconsinites know Hovde is out of step with Wisconsin values."

The Daily Beast's full report is here (subscription equired).

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