U.S. Senate candidate Eric Hovde, who easily won his primary, slammed Democrats for not doing enough to address inflation, despite new numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showing that inflation is waning.
The BLS reported a 2.9% year-on-year inflation rate in July — the smallest 12-month increase since March 2021.
“[Democrats] haven’t brought prices back down again. It’s the rate of prices going up that has come down. Prices haven’t come down,” Hovde told a WisPolitics luncheon Wednesday.
Hovde said he thought the economy would be “the biggest issue” in terms of his match-up with Dem incumbent U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin in November, adding the country was “probably heading into a recession.”
The second-biggest issue in the race, according to Hovde, was the southern border.
“We know without question or doubt that Venezuela emptied their jail cells and their psych wards into America,” Hovde declared. He tied crime, “higher medical bills or higher health insurance costs,” and a continued increase in fentanyl overdose deaths to immigration and Democrats’ mishandling of the border.
“I’ve got my competitor saying she’s done something — she has done absolutely zero,” Hovde said of Baldwin. He added the bipartisan bill Baldwin had signed on to that intended to increase border security “had no chance of passing” and “wasn’t going to deal with any of the significant issues.”
At the same time, Hovde hedged on endorsing Donald Trump’s call for mass deportations. The Madison businessman said that while he supported deportation, “to think that we’re ever going to deport 10 to 16 million people will be impossible.”
Asked for comment on Hovde’s remarks, Baldwin’s campaign pointed to the statement she released last night on the primary results.
“While I am running to put Wisconsin families first, my opponent Eric Hovde is a multi millionaire California bank owner who has insulted our seniors, our farmers, our moms, and just about everyone else in our great state,” Baldwin said. “While he runs to put the wealthy and well connected like himself first, I will always stand up for the working people of Wisconsin.”
Hovde also said:
*More competition between health care providers would help contain price spikes, adding one of the biggest flaws of Obamacare was the consolidation it led to within the health care system.
“The biggest thing we need back in our health care system is competition, desperately. Then we need price transparency,” he said.
*Wisconsin should decide the abortion issue “through a referendum”; that he personally wanted to see fewer abortions; he accepts exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother; and he backs wide access to the morning-after pill. He also said a national abortion ban was not feasible to pass because it would require a Republican president and large Republican majorities in Congress.
On the abortion pill, Hovde said he thought access to the pill including across state lines would remain a reality.
“The pill will be around, and just like our narcotics transfer from state to state or from other countries into our countries, medications move all over our country. And that’s just reality,” he said.
*Claims made against him by the Baldwin campaign and its allies were “lies.” This includes that he insulted farmers and single mothers, that he is a Californian and not from Wisconsin, and that Sunwest Bank, of which Hovde is the chairman and CEO, accepts money from foreign banks and governments.
“All these different ads, none of them have a shred of truth to them. They’re all fictitious and lies,” Hovde said. “Why don’t you debate me? Why don’t you get out and talk about issues instead of just making up, you know, silly ads and making false statements?”
Baldwin and Hovde will debate each other on Oct. 18 in a meeting hosted by the Wisconsin Broadcasters Association, but Hovde called for the incumbent senator to agree to “multiple debates.”
Hovde declined to say how much of his own money he was willing to spend in the race against Baldwin. So far he has loaned his campaign committee $13 million, according to FEC filings. Hovde also filed a U.S. Senate financial disclosure in July that shows he has a net worth somewhere between $195.4 million and $564.5 million, which would make him one of the richest people in the Senate if he won.
Watch the WisconsinEye video of the luncheon and Hovde’s availability with reporters.
