The only scheduled debate in the Wisconsin U.S. Senate contest took place Friday night in Madison, and included several disagreements on the issues and what is fair game for political discussion.
The race is getting national attention as Democrats consider the seat held by two-term incumbent Sen. Tammy Baldwin as one of the keys to the party’s efforts to maintain control of the U.S. Senate.
Republicans nationally are putting a lot of money into hoping multimillionaire business executive Eric Hovde can defeat Baldwin. Hovde has poured in millions of his own dollars.
Polls show Baldwin with a small lead, but both campaigns agree Hovde has made up ground in recent weeks.
One way Baldwin is trying to shore up her support is by promoting her coauthorship of a federal bill to bring back Roe versus Wade protections for abortion rights.
“I’m trying to lead the way to restore Roe, so that we don’t see prosecution of women who have miscarried or doctors who are providing health care,” she said, in response to a question from a media panel.
Hovde told the panel that abortion is now a state issue and Wisconsin should hold a referendum, “where everybody gets a right to vote. The voters get a right to vote, I get the right to vote.”
Abortion is currently legal in Wisconsin but the procedure was halted for about 15 months after the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in the Dobbs case, overturning Roe. A Dane County circuit judge ruled last year that an 1849 state infanticide law did not apply to abortion, and Planned Parenthood resumed offering them.
Also during the debate, Hovde kept up the attack used in his television commercials against Baldwin’s female partner, financial advisor Maria Brisbane, questioning whether some votes Baldwin has taken in Congress benefitted Brisbane.
Friday night, Hovde said to Baldwin, “You should disclose what investments your partner is making.”
Baldwin’s reply, “Eric Hovde should stay out of my personal life, and I think I speak for most Wisconsin women that he should stay out of all of our personal lives.”
Baldwin has previously denied any personal wrongdoing.
U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Milwaukee) and others have said Hovde is just raising the issue to highlight that Baldwin is openly gay, something most Wisconsin voters have known for decades.
Another controversial exchange during the debate came when the candidates were asked about the U.S. Farm Bill, a law renewed approximately every five years to help set agriculture policy for the nation.
Hovde answered, “Well, I’m not an expert on the Farm Bill because I’m not in the U.S. Senate, so I can’t opine specifically on all the aspects of the Farm Bill.” He went on to claim a lot of the bill just funds large corporations.
Baldwin answered that during this year’s debate on the Farm Bill, the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives wrote a version eviscerating nutrition programs. Baldwin went on to tout her many years of meeting with farmers, and her endorsement by the Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation, the first Democratic Senate candidate to win the Bureau’s backing in two decades.
Baldwin kept up her campaign-long attacks on whether Hovde, who has a mansion in California, is truly committed to Wisconsin. Hovde listed his commitments to the state and started to pull out of his pocket what he said was his Madison utility bill.
The Democratic Party of Wisconsin later called on Hovde to release the utility bill of his California mansion.
