Two-term Democratic incumbent Sen. Tammy Baldwin was coasting toward reelection until a spirited challenge by Eric Hovde gave Republicans a shot at picking up the Wisconsin seat.
Mr. Hovde, a wealthy businessman able to self-fund his campaign, is relentlessly hammering Ms. Baldwin with ads tying her to the unpopular President Biden and depicting her as complicit in his economic and immigration agenda.
Mr. Hovde picked up the endorsement Tuesday of former President Donald Trump, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee.
Mr. Trump called him the best candidate to take on Ms. Baldwin.
“I am giving you my complete and total endorsement,” Mr. Trump told Mr. Hovde at a rally in Green Bay. “So go out and win. Go out and win.”
A little over a month since launching his campaign and unleashing a flurry of attack ads, polls show Mr. Hovde in a tight race with Ms. Baldwin. A recent Emerson College/The Hill survey showed her barely edging out Mr. Hovde by 45% to 42%.
The margin of error was 3 percentage points.
The poll also revealed a glaring gender gap in the Senate race. Ms. Baldwin leads among women by 14 points (50% to 36%) and Mr. Hovde leads among men by 9 points (49% to 40%).
According to the Cook Political Report, Democrats privately concede that Ms. Baldwin’s biggest weakness is Mr. Biden.
“I don’t know whether they can punch a hole in a Baldwin wall other than Biden. If she hangs onto Biden, I think that’s trouble for the campaign,” a veteran Wisconsin GOP strategist told the non-partisan political analysis outfit.
Indeed, the Baldwin campaign is highlighting her bipartisan work in Washington. Its first TV ad emphasized her work with President Trump and featured his photo before showing Mr. Biden.
Senate Republicans struggled to find a candidate who would be formidable against Ms. Baldwin until Mr. Hovde stepped into the fray. The National Republican Senate Campaign Committee quickly endorsed him in February.
Mr. Hovde also ran for the Senate seat in 2012 but was defeated in the GOP primary by former Gov. Tommy Thompson, who lost to Ms. Baldwin in the general election by almost 6 points.
This time, the NRSC and Mr. Hovde’s campaign entered the general election with a TV ad hitting Ms. Baldwin for supporting “Joe Biden’s extreme agenda” and putting “Medicare and Social Security at risk.”
In another ad, a bobblehead figure of Ms. Baldwin nods affirmatively while Mr. Biden touts his economic agenda and immigration border policy.
Democrats hit back by accusing Mr. Hovde of being an out-of-touch billionaire who is not a true Wisconsinite and lives in one of his homes in Orange County, California.
“California bank owner Eric Hovde is running for Senate to impose his self-serving agenda, putting ultra-rich people like himself ahead of middle-class Wisconsinites,” Democratic Party of Wisconsin spokesman Arik Wolk said in a statement. “Wisconsinites will reject him and send him back to his $7 million California mansion.”
The Hovde camp countered with an ad featuring Mr. Hovde’s wife, Sharon, discussing her husband’s Wisconsin roots.
Wisconsin is a crucial key swing state in the presidential election, and the GOP is pulling out all the stops, including holding the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee in July.
• Kerry Picket can be reached at kpicket@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.