Madison businessman Eric Hovde, who is running to unseat U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Madison, raised more than $9 million — the large majority of that coming out of his own pocket — in the first quarter of the year, according to reports filed with the Federal Election Commission.
Baldwin, who is seeking a third term this November, raised $5.4 million in the first three months of 2024, her campaign reported. She had more than $10.2 million on hand by the end of March.
Hovde, a Republican who previously ran an unsuccessful bid for U.S. Senate in 2012, pledged not to take campaign donations from corporate special interest groups at a campaign launch event in Madison in February. His campaign reported raising more than $9 million since he entered the race, including $8 million of his own funds.
“Washington has become corrupt — career politicians sell themselves to special interests and end up working for them and not you,” Hovde said in a recent campaign ad. “I’ve worked hard, been fortunate. I don’t need their special interest money and I wont take it.”
Hovde’s campaign adviser Ben Voelkel pointed to the $1 million Hovde raised in the short span between his entry into the race in late February and the end of March.
“In just a little more than a month, grassroots Wisconsinites have sent a strong message that they are excited about Eric Hovde and are ready to retire 40-year career politician Sen. Baldwin,” Voelkel said.
In a statement, Democratic Party of Wisconsin spokesperson Arik Wolk said Hovde is “spending his own California money trying to buy Wisconsin’s Senate seat.”
“Wisconsinites deserve to know how and where Hovde made his money as he spends his millions of dollars to buy this Senate seat for himself and his wealthy MAGA allies,” Wolk continued.
Former President Donald Trump endorsed Hovde at a campaign rally in Green Bay earlier this month.
Democrats have repeatedly attacked Hovde over his deep pockets and out-of-state ties. While he was born and raised in Wisconsin, Hovde also owns a $7 million estate in Laguna Beach, California. He’s also the CEO of real estate development company Hovde Properties, founded by his grandfather in 1933. And he’s CEO and chairman of H Bancorp, one of his family’s three banking companies, and Utah-based Sunwest Bank, H Bancorp’s primary subsidiary.
Hovde is hardly the first candidate in state history to largely self-fund his campaign. In 2022, GOP gubernatorial candidate and businessman Tim Michels poured more than $17 million of his own funds into his campaign before losing to Democratic Gov. Tony Evers that November. Former Milwaukee Bucks executive Alex Lasry spent nearly $15 million of his own funds on his 2022 campaign for U.S. Senate before dropping out before the August primary that year.
Former Democratic U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl, who died late last year, spent more than $4 million in his own funds leading up to his reelection in 2000. Six years earlier, the former owner of the Milwaukee Bucks basketball team spent $6.8 million of his own money on his campaign.
Wisconsin’s November election could have a considerable impact on which party holds control of the Senate. Democratic candidates are defending 23 seats this fall, including three held by independents who caucus with Democrats. Republicans have 11 seats up for reelection.
While Hovde is the most prominent Republican in the race, he will first have to secure the party’s nomination in the Aug. 9 primary. Republicans Stacey Klein, Trempealeau County Board supervisor, and Rejani Raveendran, a 40-year-old college student and chair of the UW-Stevens Point College Republicans, have also announced they are running for the seat. Former Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke is also rumored to be considering running this year.
Unseating Baldwin will be no easy task. The Madison Democrat won her first term by more than 5 percentage points. Baldwin won her second term by more than 10 points in 2018.
Democrats have seen considerable success in recent statewide elections, including liberal state Supreme Court Justice Janet Protasiewicz’s victory last April, which shifted the state’s high court to a liberal majority for the first time in more than a decade, and Evers’ successful bid for a second term in 2022.
Beyond individual campaign fundraising efforts, the Democratic Party of Wisconsin continues to widely outpace the Republican Party of Wisconsin in terms of statewide fundraising. It’s an issue that’s plagued Wisconsin Republicans for years after campaign finance laws signed by former Gov. Scott Walker allowed political parties to receive unlimited donations and make unlimited transfers of funds to candidates.
The Republican Party of Wisconsin, through its state account, raised about $399,000 since the start of the year, according to campaign finance reports filed with the Wisconsin Ethics Commission.
The state Democratic Party raised about $5.4 million in the first three months of the year — more than 13 times what its GOP counterpart brought in.
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