Don't Believe The Lies: Eric Hovde is Right for Wisconsin

It's Time for a New Voice in Washington

Editor’s note: This is solely the opinion of Aiden Wirth and does not constitute an endorsement from The Madison Federalist.

This year, Wisconsinites will choose the Senator they send to Washington D.C. until 2031. The race is between incumbent Tammy Baldwin (D) and challenger Eric Hovde (R).

The election will be incredibly close, with polls showing both candidates receiving 48% of the vote. The stakes are also quite high, as there are at least four toss-up Senate races this year that threaten the Democratic Party’s current one-seat majority.

Wisconsin’s conservative revolution in 2010 led to the disruption of Democratic dominance in Wisconsin Senate races with the election of Senator Ron Johnson. Now, for the first time since 1957, the historically progressive state may be sending two Republicans to the Senate. 

It is clear that this election is important for both parties and because of that, there have been numerous attack ads that have lied about the people running for office. A great amount of these ads (although not all of them) have come from the Baldwin campaign aimed at Eric Hovde, and I know many people who have bought into these lies.

I want to highlight the truth about Hovde to make sure that our student body is more informed when they go to the polls. I specifically will address the claims that he is “a banker from California” and that he said “farmers don’t work hard”.

The biggest myth to dispel is that Eric Hovde is a “California Banker”. This claim is only true in a very technical sense. Yes Eric Hovde does own a bank, and yes that bank is in California, but he is not from California, and to call him a “Californian banker” is dishonest at best.

Eric Hovde has always lived in Wisconsin. He attended Madison East High School and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and then he became an entrepreneur. Although he’s been criticized for missing 17 of the last 30 elections in Wisconsin, his voting record is consistent enough to show that he has considered himself a Wisconsinite this whole time. He also said in his debate with Senator Baldwin that he has never lived one year in California. 

Moreover, Hovde never said or implied that farmers do not work hard. The claim that he said anything to that effect came from a video dug up by the Baldwin campaign which set off the flurry of escalating retaliatory attack ads that we now have today. Here are Hovde's words in the video verbatim. 

“Look at farming, look at the old physical toil it used to take on your body. Now you’re largely driving around on a tractor.” 

Anyone with a modicum of good faith who has watched the video can see that this quote is out of context. Hovde was talking about the change in healthcare needs across populations in the U.S.

The Hovde campaign website also offers some valuable insight into what Hovde originally meant. “In the out-of-context clip shared by the Baldwin campaign, he was talking about technological advancements seen across various industries over the past century, and included farming as an example of one profession that has benefitted from this progress, along with countless others.” 

It is unfortunate to see that these lies about Eric Hovde have made it so far into the mainstream because of the willingness of the Baldwin campaign to bend the truth to get ahead. The state of mainstream political discourse today unfortunately revolves around the demonization of the opponent instead of actually engaging with the effects of the opponent’s policies.

Unfortunately, when the competition turns merely into a popularity contest, the ideas that govern us become lazy in the areas that are not addressed. Voting is already happening, so I encourage you to take a look at the campaign platforms of each candidate and talk about it with a friend before then— preferably one that disagrees with you.

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