By ADELINE TRAMMELL
Everyone knows about the presidential election at the top of the ticket, but what about the United States Senate seat that’s also on the ballot? Currently, the Senate is split 51- 49, so Republicans picking up two seats would flip it, and the Democratic and Republican candidates for Wisconsin are Tammy Baldwin and Eric Hovde, respectively.
Baldwin is the incumbent senator and has served in the Senate since 2013,
before which she served in the House of Representatives. During her time in office, she supported the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, and fought for student loan forgiveness. She is the first openly gay US Senate member and Wisconsin’s first woman member of congress.
She’s been criticized by Donald Trump, with him saying, “She just votes the [Democratic] party line, she doesn’t do anything for Wisconsin.” She also faces criticism from the Republican party for her economic policies.
Eric Hovde unsuccessfully ran for senate in 2012. He is the CEO of Hovde Properties, a company his grandfather founded. He is also a trustee to the Hovde Foundation, a nonprofit organization whose main goals are to end Multiple Sclerosis (Which Eric Hovde has) and to aid children in crisis internationally. Additionally, Hovde is the CEO and chairman of H Bancorp and its subsidiary, Sunwest Bank.
One of the main criticisms against Hovde is that he won’t be in Wisconsin enough, as he owns a $7 million house in Long Beach, CA where his banking business is based. On the issue of abortion, in 2012 when he first ran for senate he stated he was “Totally opposed to abortion”, and in 2024 he claims to believe in exceptions for rape, incest, and the life of the mother.
Third-partisan candidates are also running for this position: Phil Anderson with the “Disrupt the Corruption” party and Thomas Leager with the “America First” party. Anderson is a libertarian whose aim is to promote, “individual liberty, limited government, and fiscal responsibility.” Leager is an Executive Director of Wisconsin Gun Owners Inc. and says he is working two jobs to get by and “feels overtaxed, over-regulated, overworked, and underappreciated.”
The most recent polling has Baldwin ahead by approximately 4 points, with 50.2% of the vote to Hovdes 46.2%. The third-party candidates combined captured less than 5% of the vote. Nationwide the Senate is expected to flip to Republican control by two seats, picking up Montana and West Virginia.
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