Eric Hovde visits Eau Claire while on campaign tour for U.S. Senate

EAU CLAIRE — Republican candidate for U.S. Senate Eric Hovde visited Eau Claire on Friday as a destination on his campaign tour.

While stopping in Eau Claire and various other destinations in Western Wisconsin, Hovde visited Dynamic Displays to meet with the working staff and President Mike Conlin, who started the business himself in 1991.

Hovde said that part of his mission with the Wisconsin tour is to restore the American dream. He said his focuses with his campaign are to address and lower the cost of living and also tackle border control, as it is causing an increasing fentanyl crisis in the country.

“We’re losing 100,000 Americans every year to this poison that is pouring over our southern border. And, it is the number one leading cause of death of 18 to 45 year-olds,” he said. “Those are the issues that I am talking about, what everybody is talking about with me. Because for me, it’s not just me sharing my vision of how to get our country back on track, but also listening to what voters are talking about.”

With Hovde potentially running in the general election as an opponent to current Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), many criticisms have targeted the Republican candidate from the Democratic party. One major criticism is not about his policies though, but rather calls him “Wisconsin’s California Candidate” for owning property and conducting business on the West coast state.

To combat that argument, Hovde said that he is a fourth-generation Wisconsinite and a UW-Madison Badger who lives in the state, pays taxes in the state and even has his business in the state.

“They say because I have a business office in California, I am a Californian? That is absurd,” he said. “As my ad said — because I had to respond to this nonsense — if (Baldwin’s) not going to be honest with you about where I’m from and where I live, which they know very well because they pulled my taxes, then why would you believe her about anything?”

Hovde ran for election back in 2012 in a Senate primary against former Gov. Tommy Thompson. Campaigning again 12 years later, he said that politics has changed with digital media being a much more important part of the whole thing.

Hovde is aiming for a potential seat on the U.S. Senate with the Republican primaries approaching on Aug. 14 and a general election set for Nov. 5.