Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) and Republican challenger Eric Hovde squared off Friday night on the debate stage in Madison, highlighting how the race has been largely under the radar for months. It was a fierce exchange of attacks that showed just how ferocious the situation was.
Hovde wasn't as highly regarded as a Senate Republican candidate than other candidates seeking to unseat Democratic incumbents, but he won in Wisconsin, reflecting the recent narrow margin between Vice President Harris and former President Trump. The election race has become extremely close in recent weeks. Statewide poll.
Friday was the only debate between Mr. Baldwin, a two-term incumbent, and Mr. Hovde, a billionaire real estate mogul and banker, and Republicans criticized Mr. Baldwin for not agreeing to further staged talks. She participated in three debates in 2018.
Baldwin is an accomplished politician with a track record in Washington, where she served as a leader on women's health issues and served in the House of Representatives for 14 years.
Her re-election race initially began with Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.), Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.), and Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Pa.). ) was seen as less competitive than his re-election bid. (Nevada) But some Republican strategists now view Baldwin as the second most vulnerable Democratic incumbent after Tester and Brown.
Here are five takeaways from the discussion.
The race has become dangerous
The tone and tenor of the debate quickly became sharp, personal, and downright mean-spirited, as candidates accused each other of lies, carpet-bashing, ethical lapses, and callousness.
Both candidates are taking every opportunity to attack the other and get down on their necks, putting aside the notion of the “nice guy from the Midwest.”
Mr. Hovde began the discussion by lightly poking Mr. Baldwin's reluctance to discuss it.
“I'm glad we're finally having this discussion, Senator Baldwin,” he said sarcastically.
Baldwin slammed Hovde during his first question about the Affordable Care Act, saying Hovde called the common provision that allows children to stay on their parents' health insurance plans until age 26 “stupid.” , accused them of wanting to repeal the law completely.
She also accused him of opposing negotiations with drug companies to lower drug costs.
Mr. Hovde gave a sharp response to that.
“I can't believe what I just heard. Lie after lie. I believe that Big Pharma's drug prices are too high,” he said.
He then turned to Baldwin's partner, Maria Brisbane, a private wealth advisor who consults on industries Baldwin regulates.
He repeated the attack multiple times throughout the debate, and a frustrated Baldwin told his opponent to “stay out of my private life.”
Hovde, on the other hand, took offense to Baldwin's repeated attacks that she was not a real Wisconsinite despite living in California for years, and lashed out at Baldwin for not attending the University of Wisconsin as an undergraduate.
Baldwin countered by pointing out that she attended law school there.
Issues favoring Baldwin, Democrats take center stage
Questioners for the debate, sponsored by the Wisconsin Association of Counties, included reporters and anchors from PBS Wisconsin, WKBT News 8 Now, Big Radio, TMJ4, Milwaukee, and WSAW-TV that Democrats love to debate. I asked questions about many topics. .
The first question concerned the future of the Affordable Care Act, an issue that Senate Republican leaders have largely downplayed this year.
The second was what the candidates would do to reduce the cost of prescription drugs, a favorite issue of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York.
The third question concerned childcare fees, another issue at the center of the Democratic Party.
The fourth question concerned social security protection. Polls show more voters trust Democrats to do a better job than Republicans.
The fifth question concerns long-term care for the elderly, which Republicans generally do not believe is within the federal government's responsibility.
The sixth question concerned abortion rights. It's an issue Democrats are pinning their hopes on in the 2024 election, and it's a recurring theme in campaign campaigns and political ads.
The seventh question, nearly 20 minutes into the debate, asked the candidates about immigration, an issue that Republicans have made a top priority in their 2024 campaign.
After several questions, the candidates were asked whether the next president should maintain his support for the war in Ukraine, another deeply divided issue within the Republican Party.
Hovde initially dodged a question about whether the next president should continue the massive military aid to Ukraine, but when pressed, he said, “It's a big deal to me that tens of billions of dollars went to Ukraine without accountability.'' “It raises concerns.” ”
“I don't think we should keep pumping money into Ukraine indefinitely,” he said.
Baldwin, by contrast, declared, “I strongly support supporting Ukraine. This is literally a question of democracy versus dictatorship.”
Hovde concedes to Democrats on key issues
In one of the most surprising developments of the night, Hovde conceded to Democrats on three key issues: prescription drug prices, Supreme Court reform and certain environmental regulations.
Hovde said earlier in the debate that he supports the government negotiating more with drug companies to lower prescription drug prices, a key reform of President Biden's anti-inflation law.
The Republican bristled at claims that he opposes negotiations with drug companies, saying he wants the government to have more flexible purchasing power to lower drug costs.
“I think we need to negotiate with Big Pharma. I think our drug prices are too high. When I first started taking drugs, [multiple sclerosis] It used to cost me about $6,000 a year and now it’s $35,000,” he said. “I'm against Big Pharma.”
Later in the debate, Hovde said he also supported stricter Supreme Court reforms, including term limits for sitting judges, something Biden proposed in a Washington Post op-ed in July.
“I think there should definitely be a code of ethics for judges. I don’t think they should make any private investments in the stock market while they are in office, and I don’t think they should have term limits. “I understand the desire to have them. I support term limits,” he said.
Hovde also said he supports stronger government regulation of PFAS, so-called permanent chemicals, which contaminate waterways and water sources.
Baldwin's life partner becomes a flashpoint.
Baldwin became famous in 1998 when she became the first openly gay non-incumbent member to be elected to Congress, but her partner Maria Brisbane started her career as a wealth advisor. The reason caused controversy during Friday's debate.
Mr Hovde repeatedly accused Mr Baldwin of creating a financial conflict of interest by regulating the industry Brisbane advises and of failing to disclose the financial assets of his partners.
Baldwin and Brisbane own assets together, but because they are not married, Baldwin is not required to publicly disclose all of his partner's asset holdings.
Mr Hovde raised the issue on the campaign trail because Mr Baldwin, who chairs the spending subcommittee that oversees the Department of Health and Human Services, the National Institute for Health Research and Brisbane, has in the past invested in biotechnology investment trusts. Because he was in control.
“I'm not taking Big Pharma's money. I'm not receiving special interest like Sen. Baldwin. In fact, her partner makes money on it, but I They don’t even disclose the profits they are getting,” he said.
Later in the debate, Baldwin bluntly let his opponents know that he did not welcome personal attacks.
“Eric Hovde should stay out of my private life,” she said sharply.
But Mr Hovde refused to withdraw it, insisting that the issue was much bigger than an individual privacy issue.
“Sen. Baldwin, I can't care too much about your personal life, but if your partner has an investment in a company that you oversee and you don't disclose it, that's completely out of interest.” It’s contradictory,” he said.
Both candidates refuse to retreat from misleading negative advertising
With disinformation in the 2024 election a hot topic, both candidates have refused to disavow political attack ads that third-party fact-checking organizations have deemed misleading.
Milwaukee TMJ4 anchor Shannon Sims asked Baldwin about an ad in which Hovde claims he called farmers “lazy” and that Baldwin funds a clinic that provides transgender treatment to minors without parental consent. We asked Hovde about the ad claiming to offer , but both decisions have been made. Being deemed “false” by a non-partisan organization.
“Both of these ads end with the words, 'I approve this message.' If you can remove these ads, why don't you?” the questioner asked, noting that many voters disagree. He said he was “frustrated” by the misleading and misleading advertisements.
Baldwin refused to retract, arguing that he had the right to “expand” on his opponent's past statements.
“I think it's really hard to say that an ad is false when you're hearing Mr. Eric Hovde's own words and you're seeing it in his eyes and I'm telling you what he said,” she said. said.
Hovde also continued his attacks on Baldwin.
“Every single one of Sen. Baldwin's ads was a lie. People think I'm some dude from California, but I was born and raised in this state. [and] Where have you spent the last 12 years? [Baldwin] I’ve grown,” he said. “I vote here. I live here. I'm a graduate of the University of California.”
Regarding the clinic that purportedly certifies transgender treatment, Hovde claimed that the organization had changed its website to obscure the nature of its services.
“She funded the construction of that clinic. The clinic changed the content on its website to remove that it had done so without parental approval,” he said.
