Politics
GOP US Senate candidate Eric Hovde’s wife takes aim at Democratic opponent, Tammy Baldwin in Wisconsin
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The wife of Republican U.S. Senate candidate Eric Hovde is taking center stage in her husband’s campaign in the days after he secured the party nomination, directly attacking Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin in a television ad released Thursday about single mothers.
The race between Baldwin, a two-term incumbent, and millionaire businessman Hovde is one of the most closely watched this cycle. A Baldwin win in battleground Wisconsin is seen as critical for Democrats to have a chance at maintaining majority control of the Senate.
Hovde’s campaign took a marked personal turn this week, first with a pair of ads prominently featuring his wife Sharon Hovde discussing Hovde’s charity work and his battle with multiple sclerosis.
Sharon Hovde also speaks directly to the camera in the latest campaign spot released Thursday, a response to a Baldwin ad that hit Hovde over comments he made about single mothers in his previous Senate run in 2012.
That year, in an interview, Hovde said being a single mother “is a direct path to a life of poverty” that also “leads to higher drug rates, it leads to higher mental and physical health problems. And unfortunately for our young men, higher incarceration rates in jail.”
In another 2012 interview, Hovde said having children out of marriage leads to “higher poverty rates, higher incarceration rates, for those young children, higher dropout rates, higher rates of depression. It is devastating to them.”
Baldwin ran an ad earlier this month featuring the children of single parents criticizing Hovde over his comments.
“What is wrong with this guy?” one man says in the ad. Baldwin does not appear in the ad paid for by her campaign.
In Hovde’s response ad, his wife doesn’t dispute his comments. Instead, she puts her focus on Baldwin.
“Sen. Baldwin, your dirty campaign has gone too far,” Sharon Hovde says in the ad. “Your latest attack on my husband is about single mothers? I was a single mom when I met Eric. It was hard. Eric saw the difficulty I faced just trying to afford child care.”
Sharon Hovde was separated from her first husband when she and Eric Hovde met, Hovde’s campaign spokesperson Ben Voelkel said. At the time, Sharon Hovde’s daughter was 3-years-old. Hovde and his wife also have a daughter together.
Baldwin’s campaign defended its attack ad on Hovde.
“Eric Hovde’s words speak for themselves,” said Baldwin spokesperson Andrew Mamo. “He insulted the children of single mothers just like he has insulted Wisconsin seniors, farmers, and those struggling with their weight. Wisconsinites deserve a senator who respects them, not one who demeans them.”
It’s rare for the spouse of a candidate to take such a prominent role in messaging beyond simply being a surrogate, said Kelly Dittmar, director of research at the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University. But when they are used, it’s often done in a way to address a weakness or criticism of the candidate, Dittmar said.
Male candidates running against women often lean on the women in their lives to make the attacks against their female opponents, Dittmar said.
“If they can have those attacks come from another woman, and not a man directly, they can sidestep some of the criticism about having a man attack a woman,” she said.
Libertarian Guy
August 17, 2024 at 9:59 am
“The millionaire Eric Hovde” with no mention of the fact that Tammy Baldwin is also a millionaire. Whether one is a millionaire or not is completely irrelevant. But this article is written by the liberal leaning Associated Press. It’s subtle bias, but it is clear bias of which all readers should be aware. WIZM‘s Brad Williams repeated that millionaire line unnecessarily and without respect to the fact, Tammy Baldwin is also a millionaire when he reported the local news. Be aware of such biases in reporting. I believe such things are added because many people are not millionaires. It is an attempt by media with a pro liberal agenda to make the candidate look like he or she is privileged and cannot relate to the common man. personally, I like candidates who manage money well, something that Is sorely needed in government as they continue to print and spend money driving us closer to bankruptcy as a country.
walden
August 17, 2024 at 11:29 am
So true. I also don’t recall the media routinely referring the late Dem Senator Herb Kohl as “millionaire.”
Herb Kohl’s estate recently listed for sale his Wyoming ranch asking price $65 million.
Tom
August 18, 2024 at 9:57 am
Hovde became a millionaire before entering politics. Baldwin – after. Think about that.
Roy
August 18, 2024 at 11:13 am
Need to ask Associated Press if “Eric” is Hovde’s middle name and Brad Williams too, since they refer to him as “Millionaire Eric Hovde.
As to LG’s point, I don’t think most people would vote for someone described as “Poverty-Stricken Joe Blow, who resides in Pettibone Park”..blah, blah.
If these news guys had an original adjective it would bite them in the rear.
LG
August 17, 2024 at 10:15 am
By the way, single women with children do have higher levels of poverty, dependence upon government, increased drug use, etc., for many different reasons. Eric Hovde’s statements on this topic are true. There are many reasons for this that have little to do with the woman herself. They may have chosen a deadbeat man, A man who accepts no responsibility, does not pay child support, was only interested in a one night stand with a woman who did not think through what she was doing, she may be unable to work due to lack of childcare, she may have had the child in an unplanned fashion before her education was complete, causing her to experience lower income, inability to complete her education because she chose to be a good mother via sacrifice to take care of her child or children. Just because Tammy Baldwin‘s team can find a few people who have had some success despite single parenthood, does not negate the statistics nor does it render Eric Hovde‘s statements false. Check the statistics and Nationally syndicated Dave Ramsey will also tell you the same thing.
walden
August 17, 2024 at 11:44 am
Hovde was spot on in his comments and the statistics back him up. He didn’t mean to say poverty couldn’t be overcome or avoided but everything is tougher for single parent families and many are unable to overcome the burden of shouldering the responsibilities otherwise shared by two parents. I know, I was raised in a single parent family and experienced how difficult it is.
Failed marriages and single parents impact themselves, their children and their children’s children with multi-generational economic challenges and other problems with a higher frequency than traditional families. Life is tough; it’s even tougher when a parent has to go it alone.
nick
August 18, 2024 at 6:29 am
Tammy Baldwin is another liberal fraud. She has nothing to run. Why does the Democratic Party attack families. Why do they get away with it. Easy answer is the media is to the Democratic Party what Pravda was to the Communist Party in Russia.
They have sold out .
Hovde is right in that single parents especially women have it rough.