Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) and Republican challenger Eric Hovde squared off on a debate stage in Madison Friday night in a heated exchange that showed how intense this race has become after months of largely flying under the radar.
Hovde was not as highly touted a Senate Republican candidate as some others trying to oust Democratic incumbents, but the Wisconsin race has become extremely narrow in recent weeks, reflecting the narrow difference between Vice President Harris and former President Trump in recent national polls.
Friday’s only debate was between Baldwin, a two-term incumbent, and Hovde, a multimillionaire real estate mogul and banker, and Republicans have criticized Baldwin for not agreeing to further stage encounters. She took part in three debates in 2018.
Baldwin is a veteran politician who has been a leader in Washington on women’s health issues and served 14 years in the House of Representatives.
Her re-election campaign was initially viewed as less competitive than the re-election bids of Sens. Jon Tester (D-Mont.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Bob Casey (D-Pa.) and Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), but some Republican strategists now see Baldwin as the next the most vulnerable Democratic incumbent after Tester and Brown.
Here are five takeaways from the debate.
The race has gotten bad
The tone and tenor of the debate quickly became pointed, personal and downright nasty as the candidates accused each other of lying, cheating, ethical lapses and insensitivity.
Both candidates have put aside any notion of “Midwestern nice” to go for the jugular and take every opportunity to take shots at their opponents.
Hovde began the debate by accusing Baldwin of not being more open to debate:
“It’s finally nice to have this debate, Senator Baldwin,” he said with a touch of irony.
Baldwin lashed out at Hovde on the first question about the Affordable Care Act, accusing Hovde of calling the popular policy of keeping children on their parents’ health insurance until age 26 “stupid” and calling for a complete repeal of the law want.
She then accused him of refusing to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies to reduce drug costs.
This earned Hovde a acute response.
“I can’t believe what I just heard. It’s one lie after another. … I believe our drug prices are too high,” he said.
He then attacked Baldwin’s partner, Maria Brisbane, a private wealth advisor who advises on industries regulated by Baldwin.
He repeated this attack several times during the debate, prompting a frustrated Baldwin to tell her opponent to “stay out of my personal life.”
Hovde, meanwhile, took exception to Baldwin’s repeated attacks that he was not a true Wisconsin resident after living in California for years and accused her of not attending the University of Wisconsin as a student.
Baldwin replied that she had studied law there.
Issues that favor Baldwin and the Democrats take center stage
Questioners at the Wisconsin Counties Association-sponsored debate, which included reporters and anchors from PBS Wisconsin, WKBT News 8 Now, Big Radio, TMJ4, Milwaukee and WSAW-TV, asked questions on many of the topics Democrats like to discuss.
The first question concerned the future of the Affordable Care Act, an issue that Senate Republican leaders have largely downplayed this year.
The second topic was what the candidates would do to lower the cost of prescription drugs, a favorite talking point of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).
The third question was about the cost of child care, another issue in the Democrats’ wheelhouse.
The fourth question was about protecting Social Security, an issue that polls show more voters trust Democrats than Republicans to handle well.
The fifth question was about long-term health care for seniors, something Republicans say is generally outside the purview of the federal government.
The six questions were about abortion rights – that’s the issue Democrats are pinning their hopes on in the 2024 election and a topic they’ve been raising again and again on the campaign trail and in political ads.
It wasn’t until the seventh question, nearly 20 minutes into the debate, that the candidates were asked about immigration, the issue that Republicans have made central to the 2024 campaign.
A few questions later, the candidates were asked whether the next president should stay the course on supporting the war in Ukraine, another issue that largely divides Republicans.
Hovde initially dodged the question of whether the next president should continue to fund gigantic amounts of military aid to Ukraine, but when asked, admitted that “the tens of billions of dollars that have flowed unaccountably to Ukraine cause me great concern. “ .”
“I don’t think we should continue to pour endless money into Ukraine,” he said.
Baldwin, however, said: “I strongly support supporting Ukraine because this is, in the truest sense of the word, democracy versus dictatorship.”
Hovde defers to Democrats on key issues
In one of the more surprising developments of the evening, Hovde had to defer to Democrats on three key issues: prescription drug prices, Supreme Court reform and some types of environmental regulations.
At the start of the debate, Hovde said he would support more government negotiations with drug companies to reduce the cost of prescription drugs, a key reform in President Biden’s inflation reduction law.
The Republican bristled at claims that he opposed negotiations with drug companies and insisted he would like to see the government employ its purchasing power to drive down drug costs.
“I think we need to negotiate with Big Phrma. I think our drug prices are too high. When I started taking my medication [multiple sclerosis] They cost about $6,000 a year, now they cost $35,000,” he said. “I’m the one who’s against Big Phrma.”
Hovde said later in the debate that he would also support tougher reforms to the Supreme Court, including term limits for sitting justices, which Biden proposed in a Washington Post editorial in July.
“I think we should definitely have a code of ethics for judges. I do not believe that they should make private investments in the stock market during their term, and I understand the desire for term limits. I support term limits,” he said.
And Hovde said he would support stricter government regulation of PFAS, so-called perennial chemicals, that pollute waterways and water sources.
Baldwin’s partner becomes the focal point
Baldwin rose to fame in 1998 for becoming the first openly gay non-incumbent elected to Congress, but her partner Maria Brisbane was a controversial topic in Friday’s debate because of her career as a financial advisor.
Hovde repeatedly accused Baldwin of putting her in a financial conflict of interest by regulating industries in which Brisbane advises and of failing to disclose her partner’s financial assets.
Baldwin and Brisbane own assets together, but since they are not married, Baldwin is not required to publicly disclose all of her partner’s assets.
Hovde raised the issue on the campaign trail because Baldwin chairs a budget subcommittee that oversees the Department of Health and the National Institutes of Health, and Brisbane has managed a biotech investment fund in the past.
“I don’t take Big Pharma’s money. I don’t take special interest money like Senator Baldwin. In fact, her partner makes money from this and doesn’t even disclose the profit she makes,” he said.
Later in the debate, Baldwin bluntly let her opponent know that she didn’t appreciate the personal attacks.
“Eric Hovde should stay out of my personal life,” she said pointedly.
But Hovde refused to elaborate, insisting that the issue was far bigger than a matter of privacy.
“Senator. “Baldwin, I could care less about your personal life, but if your partner invests in companies that you oversee and you don’t disclose that, that’s a total conflict of interest,” he said.
Both candidates refuse to shy away from misleading negative ads
At a time when disinformation has become a major topic of discussion in the 2024 election, both candidates refused to reject political attack ads that have been deemed misleading by independent fact-checking groups.
TMJ4 Milwaukee anchor Shannon Sims questioned Baldwin about an ad that claimed Hovde called farmers “lazy” and questioned Hovde about an ad that claimed Baldwin funded a transgender clinic -Offers therapy to minors without parental consent. Both were firmly viewed as “wrong” by non-partisan organizations.
“Both ads end with you saying, ‘I agree with this message.’ “You could run these ads, why don’t you do that,” the questioner asked, pointing out that many voters are “frustrated” by negative, misleading ads.
Baldwin refused to back down, arguing that she had every right to “amplify” her opponent’s statements in the past.
“I think it’s really hard to say an ad is false when you hear Eric Hovde in his own words. You see this with your eyes, I tell you things he said,” she said.
Hovde also continued his attacks on Baldwin.
“Every single ad made by Senator Baldwin was a lie. I’m supposedly the idiot from California, but I was born and raised in this state [and] where I have lived for the last 12 years [Baldwin] grew up,” he said. “I’m voting here. I live here. I’m a UW graduate.”
On the issue of the clinic purporting to provide transgender therapy, Hovde argued that the organization changed its website to conceal the nature of its services.
“She provided a dedicated donation for this clinic. “The clinic changed the content of its website indicating that it did so without parental consent,” he said.
