WAUNAKEE — With two months left in his bid to unseat Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin, Republican businessman Eric Hovde toured a metal fabrication facility in Dane County and fielded questions from employees.
Dane Manufacturing employees gathered on the floor to hear the real estate and banking mogul's campaign speech and asked questions about cryptocurrency, abortion and his Wisconsin roots.
Here are four takeaways from the event.
Hovde says 'both sides' should 'lower the rhetoric'
Hours ahead of the stop, in an interview with the Associated Press , Waukesha Mayor Shawn Reilly condemned a television ad from a Republican independent group that attempts to tie Baldwin to the attack at the city's 2021 Christmas parade that killed six people.
The independent group, One Nation, is aligned with Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
In the AP story, Reilly urged Hovde to condemn the ad.
Asked about it, Hovde said he wasn't familiar with the ad and didn't know which group was behind it.
"Look, I'm the one who's had more attack ads on me. I mean, Sen. Baldwin, all her ads have been is attacking me. And if you looked at, most of my ads are being positive or talking about issues," Hovde told reporters.
Hovde said he'd prefer campaigns had no attack ads and called for an end to "divisive politics."
"My view is, I think we need to lower the rhetoric on both sides. I would prefer not to see all these negative attack ads. I'd rather focus on issues," he said.
Hovde pushes back on investment criticisms
Democrats on Wednesday criticized Hovde for visiting a manufacturing facility following a Huffington Post report that between 2008 and 2010, Hovde Capital invested millions of dollars into companies that later outsourced Wisconsin jobs.
"Eric Hovde has no respect for Wisconsin workers," said Democratic Party of Wisconsin spokesman Arik Wolk in a statement, referencing the Huffington Post story. "From his insulting comments to his damaging investments it's clear Eric Hovde only cares about one thing: making money for himself and rich people like him."
Hovde dismissed the attack as "absurd."
"You have a 401(k)? Do you have a pension plan? Because if you do, they invest in publicly traded companies," he said. "So I have no control over any company that's laid off workers here in Wisconsin. Zero. I've only added and built jobs here in Wisconsin."
"No company I own has laid off anybody," he added.
Tax system should be 'vastly more simplified'
Hovde advocated for extending Republican President Donald Trump's 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act , arguing the policy helps put small- and medium-sized businesses on a more even playing field with larger corporations. The policy is set to expire on Dec. 31, 2025.
The law lowered tax rates across the board and shifted the thresholds for several income tax brackets .
"I think, for me, (an improvement would be) keeping rates lower, but also getting rid of all the loopholes in the tax systems for big corporations that pay nothing," Hovde said when asked his stance on corporate tax policy. "That is something that I think needs to be cleaned up. I think our whole tax system needs to be vastly more simplified."
Democratic enthusiasm bump hasn't changed his strategy
Polls following President Joe Biden's departure from the race and Vice President Kamala Harris's ascent to the top of the Democratic presidential ticket showed the enthusiasm gap between Republicans (who had a significant advantage) and Democrats in Wisconsin effectively closing.
Hovde said that hasn't changed his campaign strategy.
"I'm out there every single day, running from morning to night, doing interviews with people like yourself, engaging with people, talking to crowds," he said. "For me, it's just doing what I've been doing from the get-go, and that is running hard, talking to people, talking about issues that matter to them, the economy, our domestic security, the border, our international security, again, trying to bring a message of, let's come together."
Baldwin led Hovde among registered voters 53% to 46%, and among likely voters 52% to 47%, in a Marquette University Law School poll released about a month ago. That represented a slight boost for Baldwin since the last Marquette poll conducted in June , which had Baldwin at 52% and Hovde at 47% among both registered and likely voters.
Jessie Opoien can be reached at jessie.opoien@jrn.com.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Takeaways from Eric Hovde campaign stop: He calls for simpler tax code, defends investments
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