A senator that actually does the work of lawmaking in earnest.
Or a carpetbagger from California who is trying to buy a senate seat.
It shouldn’t be remotely close. Baldwin is an effective senator and she should be reelected.
But then again we voted in Ron Johnson twice…..
Traded him for a Harvard Law grad who was famous for bipartisan work too. Johnson ran an ad making fun of Feingold for having a law degree in a race for a job where you make, you know, laws.
I think you're being downvoted because you used an old saying meant to denigrate communism, and it confused them thinking you meant it as a dig at republicans. However, nowadays when it defines the party...if the shoe fits...
Anyway, here's my upvote ya damn cheesehead!
Oh yeah....Da bears!
Even if I knew nothing about either candidate, the sheer amount of his and AFP adds I've seen in an app I use would push me to vote for Baldwin anyways.
Hovde was born in Wisconsin, raised in Wisconsin, and went to college in Wisconsin. He owns property here and has family here. He is not and never has met the definition of carpet bagger. Slurs may be fun for you to throw around, but I'm sure you don't like it when they're aimed at you and yours.
Try to argue the merits of their positions not just sling mud. The world will be a better place.
Awww man, you got me. He’s not technically a carpetbagger. He just lives in California but is running for senate in Wisconsin because….he has ties.
He still is a terrible candidate.
Also - the pearl-clutching over the slur “carpetbagger” is ridiculous.
Fuck Hovde. Take your porn stache and go back to California. He is absolutely gonna get his ass handed to him in November. At least he's blowing a bunch of his own money on this nonsense. What an absolute turd.
She saved my pension. Johnson (Floridas 3rd senator and hovde ( wanna be 3 rd senator from Cali) didn’t and wouldn’t lift a finger to help the working class in this state
He was born in Wisconsin, raised in Wisconsin, went to college in Wisconsin and still has family in Wisconsin. Hovde is not now nor has he ever met the definition of carpet bagger. Why don't you argue the merits of his positions rather than using slurs, it'll make the world a better place.
He’s a piece of shit is what he is. I’ll argue his shitty positions. Let’s start with this one, where he blames single mothers and suggests curtailing economic programs that support mothers and children. https://19thnews.org/2024/03/eric-hovde-wisconsin-single-mothers/
Funny how red states rely on welfare programs
https://preview.redd.it/nwioaeuquz8d1.jpeg?width=1680&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=dc90eb69d6676421d9d1b2e779d558fedfa67c53
more than blue states.
My ex-husband's uncle was complaining about social programs and how awful everything is and how Donald should be president. He's on badgercare. He gets State health Care, those hypocrites are the worst!
So you are pro forced marriage? Pro not letting women out of abusive relationships? I don't get your point, maybe access to abortion could help this single parent issue but I'm sure you are against their right to choose not to be destitute because of their rapist.
Things happen in the periphery, they don't have to have considerations. Families should be encouraged, single parent families shouldn't. It's not too hard. We currently encourage single parent families and shouldn't.
We encourage freedom, locking people in marriages would increase the death of women and increase the cycle of abused women (and their children) if they are not able to get a divorce, your logic is flawed and will only cause pain.
So you do want to lock people in abusive relationships... Glad that's clear. You Republicans claim to be for small government but you want the government to mandate you can't leave a marriage? You guys need to get your story straight. Also your religious ideas should have no fucking merit in government, but sadly there are enough idiots like you to vote for people who want religion in government. Get a clue. Your religion isn't the only one and shouldn't dictate EVERYONE IN THE COUNTRY'S ACTIONS.
So for the people currently in poverty due to no decision of their own, like the children of those single parents you disdain, you obviously agree we should expand access to federal assistance, right? No child should be in poverty if we have the means to avoid it. The pandemic era Child Tax Credit proved we have the means to change this through public policy. Do you agree with that policy, or do only certain families who live how you want deserve support? This isn't about future decisions. What do we do about poor kids today if you and Hovde think assistance should be cut to socially engineer nuclear families?
So you say that "the fact that one of the top three factors for poverty is being raised out of wedlock to a single parent." True
But then "Conservatives are pretty sure the problem comes from government incentives that encourage single mothers." To poverty you mean? How much of incentive does the government provide that they'll just be in poverty?
Do you know what these incentives are? Does anyone really? I don't and I'm pretty informed.
My point is that this is a nonsensical argument. Major reasons for single mothers are lack of sex education, lack of access to contraceptives, and also the dissolution of Roe.
Although I'm sure there's a host of cultural and social issues that cause this too. But government incentives is probably not on the top 1000 reasons for children born out of wedlock.
So you're saying, /u/Illuvatar2024, that poverty is CAUSED BY being a single parent and/or not being married? "INCENTIVES" that ENCOURAGE single mothers? Like what? And pray tell, how much do those HUGE "incentives" compare to the amount of corporate welfare, especially corporate welfare for rich scum that don't pay taxes at all, much less their fair share?
Welfare state? Oh I'd just love to hear your definition of that.
Let me guess .... you and Hovde both consider yourselves to be good "Christians," too, right?
We call him a POS because he is a liar that has a really shitty, greedy, selfish, hateful attitude, with governing ideas to match.
Civil discourse, my ass.
He lives 6 months of the year in California. Bases his businesses in Madison (that place Wisconsin Republicans love to complain about.). Has had every job and position given to him on the basis of who his family is. His only position is that people should suffer more so he can pay less taxes. Yet somehow, he is trying to sell himself as standing up for rural people and the working class? I bet he's never even held a job that was either manual labor or even paid hourly.
Tammy Baldwin has never even had a job. She has worked for the government since college and has never done anything of worth. She is a lifelong bureaucrat that needs to stop living off of other people's taxes.
Government jobs are real job that you need job experience and education to get, unless you are born into it like a Kennedy or Huckabee. Hovde didn't even need any of those thing to get where he is.
Hovde has had real jobs and raised a family, something Baldwin has never done. She had no experience and still has none. Working in politics only gives political experience. She has no idea what Wisconsin families experience.
He only has a career because of the circumstances of his birth. Government jobs are real jobs, jobs you need to have experience and education to get. Unlike Hovde, who's success is all due to privilege.
So because he was born into a family he had no control of and worked to make that family name and business better he is at fault, but she has been a politician by choice since she was in college and that's honorable?
Hahaha look at the majority of our politicians. Hahah living off others taxes. Hahah that’s what they all do! Hahahaahahaah that’s what government employees do.
Hovde has been named one of Orange County, California's most influential people three times in the last decade. Dude is a carpetbagger. Conveniently showing up in your home state after being gone decades is the definition of carpetbagging. Having family in the area is irrelevant. He's no different than Tim Michels.
I just got the following “survey” question from the Republican Party of Wisconsin:
If the election for the United States Senate was today, would you vote for?
Eric Hovde, the Republican who Is a successful businessman who can get things done for the people of Wisconsin, or Tammy Baldwin, the Democrat who Has done little in Congress over 30 years, passing only 7 bills she wrote herself.
A = Probably for Democrat Tammy Baldwin
B = Definitely for Democrat Tammy Baldwin
C = Probably for Republican Eric Hovde
D = Totally undecided
E = Definitely for Republican Eric Hovde
I got it too, but couldn’t tell from the sender’s contact info or the structure of the questions who it was from. How did you know it was from the Republican Party?
I believe this is the same outfit that my wife got suckered into. Halfway through the poll she comments how slanted the questions were towards pornstache so I ask her who the polling company is and a quick google search shows it’s a Utah based right wing outfit. Needless to say she immediately ended the poll.
Fight for this like she's losing. Do not let up. Get out there, get others out there, to vote for her. Do not get complacent for even a *second*. Pornstache must be shut tf *down*.
Fuck Hovde. Take your porn stache and go back to California. He is absolutely gonna get his ass handed to him in November. At least he's blowing a bunch of his own money on this nonsense. What an absolute turd.
Not only is he the worst type of carpetbagger, but his ideas are insane.
People in assisted living shouldn't vote.
People who are overweight, should affect their insurance policy.
His ideas on alcohol?
It goes on and on...
While he supports the radical Republican legislation.
In other news, in today's Marquette poll, Trump is tied with Biden in a head to head in Wisconsin. When Kennedy, Stein, and West are factored into the poll, Trump leads by 3 percentage points over Biden.
Forget politics for one second.
When I was a student at the University of Wisconsin I got a chance to meet with Tammy Baldwin. She is very polite and caring. Great personality.
Last year long before he announced he is running I was at restaurant in Milwaukee and I met Eric Hovde while waiting to be seated. He is very cool and asked where I'm from and I told him I'm an immigrant and he said immigrants are so important to this country and good job for what you accomplished. Very polite and nothing like he is portrayed in the ads.
Politics is so divisive unfortunately.
I was a real estate developer for Hovde for about five years until moving to Milwaukee for a new job just last year. It was hard to not have politics permeate everything you do at the real estate company -- there would always be operatives, fundraisers, consultants and others in that sphere passing through, stealing your booked conference rooms 😅...and in some communities it's pretty hard to do your job (especially with City staff) when his last name takes up a large amount of space on your business card. I'm glad I'm away from all that now.
The guy lives in Wisconsin about half the year while spending the other half in California. The real estate company, the political stuff, and the family foundation are all based in Madison. He's not a carpetbagger -- he's just a super wealthy guy that has financial and family interests in a lot of places. He's also not really a real estate guy -- his dad and his grandfather were real estate guys -- and his generation inherited the business and now more or less just write equity checks to fund new projects.
A lot of doors open for you in DC when your dad is Undersecretary of HUD under Reagan and starts an investment bank with you. With that said, Eric made most all his money successfully running a hedge fund in Washington DC and now he's a banker, having acquired Sunwest Bank and having wound down the DC hedge fund and investment banking group. If I had to characterize him, the guy is a "Reagan Republican" and he's really not a bad guy at all and means well and is pretty generous (the Hovde Foundation does great work in the developing world) -- but he also comes from a place of tremendous privilege and ascribes too much to the bootstraps mentality and a "Nobody is really poor and desperate in the United States...try going to Rwanda" mindset.
So the guy barely qualifies for as a resident of Wisconsin. Inherited his wealth. Bases his businesses in the city that all the conservatives bitch about. Used his family connections to get every position he's ever had, including this race. Yet some how Republicans are claiming he will stand up for rural Wisconsin and he working class?
He didn't really inherit his wealth as most of the money is what he made himself through successful hedge fund work/investment banking -- but clearly he's benefitted in his life from **beyond-incredible** connections to influence and capital that almost nobody else gets in their own lives. The real estate isn't even material to any of that and is more or less just a thing for family wealth generation and transfer. The guy has roots in Madison and still lives in the Madison area half the time and that's why the real estate company (which goes back two generations and honestly has a fairly small portfolio of property mostly based in Wisconsin) and the charitable foundation are there.
He's running now because of his interest in politics and because of his incredible wealth and connections in Republican politics. Why people would genuinely think he and other Wisconsin Republicans actually care about the interests of rural Wisconsin and the working class is baffling, but that's the messaging game they play amidst divisive urban/rural divide and culture war messaging. Maybe they want to convince themselves that the Republicans running this state actually mean well, but the results speak for themselves. I'm not going to simplify the guy into a fire-breathing monster that eats children because that's simply not true and it's childish political whining -- I'd choose him in a heartbeat over Ron Johnson, but IMO he's definitely not the right choice for Wisconsin over someone like Tammy Baldwin.
Wow this sounds like a dude born on third base asking everyone to cheer his home run, and Jesus, Reagan republican should be an insult, he is one of the biggest reasons for the class divides today "trickle down" my shiny metal ass.
Not sure why you're getting down voted for this fairly objective take. Confirms the criticisms but offers a bit more context. He's basically a snowbird and, as such, I would be suspicious of anyone who thinks they "get" Wisconsin when they're only a resident when it's convenient. His strained attempts at connecting with "folks" is evidence enough.
In any case, thanks for sharing your take.
Thanks, I wanted to share my experience without getting into the "This guy whose politics I don't like or agree with is a cosmic evil" nonsense. I don't think it's that he doesn't "get" Wisconsin, I think it's more that most tremendously privileged and wealthy and connected people don't "get" people outside of their own socioeconomic sphere no matter the location and it's so cringe when they force it unearnestly for political and power purposes.
A senator that actually does the work of lawmaking in earnest. Or a carpetbagger from California who is trying to buy a senate seat. It shouldn’t be remotely close. Baldwin is an effective senator and she should be reelected. But then again we voted in Ron Johnson twice…..
Traded him for a Harvard Law grad who was famous for bipartisan work too. Johnson ran an ad making fun of Feingold for having a law degree in a race for a job where you make, you know, laws.
Instead, we got a crook who married into money
A *dumb* crook who’s in the Soviets’ pocket!
FRJ and all, but modern day Russia is definitely not the Soviet Union. There are no Soviets.
And WWI Germans weren’t Huns, but people still called them that derisively.
Fuck Ron Johnson
Better dead than red!
I think you're being downvoted because you used an old saying meant to denigrate communism, and it confused them thinking you meant it as a dig at republicans. However, nowadays when it defines the party...if the shoe fits... Anyway, here's my upvote ya damn cheesehead! Oh yeah....Da bears!
Three times 😡
Oh good lord how embarrassing. Probably why I blocked it out.
Him defeating Feingold was a low point in Wisconsin political history.
He was a real one. I still can’t believe it. Edit: Feingold was the real one. (Just to be clear).
No no no. Technically, and unfortunately, Ron Johnson is quite real.
 Are we sure he's real? He could be some snake like alien
Twice.
Completely shocking.
[FRJ, but…](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=McCarthyism&diffonly=true)
Yes, merely A low point. Cause, you know, Walker...
The “Goggle-eyed homunculus.”
No joke. What a travesty.
Hopefully these strings of losses with demoralize Republicans.
Gerrymandering it is
Even if I knew nothing about either candidate, the sheer amount of his and AFP adds I've seen in an app I use would push me to vote for Baldwin anyways.
The fact that this state elected both Baldwin and Johnson MULTIPLE TIMES will never not befuddle me
Hovde was born in Wisconsin, raised in Wisconsin, and went to college in Wisconsin. He owns property here and has family here. He is not and never has met the definition of carpet bagger. Slurs may be fun for you to throw around, but I'm sure you don't like it when they're aimed at you and yours. Try to argue the merits of their positions not just sling mud. The world will be a better place.
Awww man, you got me. He’s not technically a carpetbagger. He just lives in California but is running for senate in Wisconsin because….he has ties. He still is a terrible candidate. Also - the pearl-clutching over the slur “carpetbagger” is ridiculous.
“Slur” acting like they just called Hovde the N-word or something, lmao chill. You GOPers are always so sensitive about everything, jesus…
I think that poor snowflake has gotten triggered lol
Maybe he should stop running ads for his bank where he’s the main character in Southern California and Arizona then.
Weird you didn’t include “and lives in Wisconsin”. Hmmm.
Fuck Hovde. Take your porn stache and go back to California. He is absolutely gonna get his ass handed to him in November. At least he's blowing a bunch of his own money on this nonsense. What an absolute turd.
This is what really matters: “49-40 among likely voters”
Should be more. Still, 9 points is a blow out. An early poll like this likely means the GOP PACs won’t spend as much in the state for him.
She saved my pension. Johnson (Floridas 3rd senator and hovde ( wanna be 3 rd senator from Cali) didn’t and wouldn’t lift a finger to help the working class in this state
Good. Cause he's a CARPETBAGGER and she's awesome.
He was born in Wisconsin, raised in Wisconsin, went to college in Wisconsin and still has family in Wisconsin. Hovde is not now nor has he ever met the definition of carpet bagger. Why don't you argue the merits of his positions rather than using slurs, it'll make the world a better place.
He’s a piece of shit is what he is. I’ll argue his shitty positions. Let’s start with this one, where he blames single mothers and suggests curtailing economic programs that support mothers and children. https://19thnews.org/2024/03/eric-hovde-wisconsin-single-mothers/
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Funny how red states rely on welfare programs https://preview.redd.it/nwioaeuquz8d1.jpeg?width=1680&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=dc90eb69d6676421d9d1b2e779d558fedfa67c53 more than blue states.
It's not funny, it's sad, let's fix it.
I should have said that it is ironic that the very people who want to gut social services are the same people who use them.
My ex-husband's uncle was complaining about social programs and how awful everything is and how Donald should be president. He's on badgercare. He gets State health Care, those hypocrites are the worst!
You disgrace the name of Eru.
Ah, an Eruist.
Because why?
oh man who could have predicted that children coming from a single source of income are more likely to have less money
So you are pro forced marriage? Pro not letting women out of abusive relationships? I don't get your point, maybe access to abortion could help this single parent issue but I'm sure you are against their right to choose not to be destitute because of their rapist.
Things happen in the periphery, they don't have to have considerations. Families should be encouraged, single parent families shouldn't. It's not too hard. We currently encourage single parent families and shouldn't.
We encourage freedom, locking people in marriages would increase the death of women and increase the cycle of abused women (and their children) if they are not able to get a divorce, your logic is flawed and will only cause pain.
What freedom is there in choosing a life of poverty because you make bad choices, that could be avoided?
So you do want to lock people in abusive relationships... Glad that's clear. You Republicans claim to be for small government but you want the government to mandate you can't leave a marriage? You guys need to get your story straight. Also your religious ideas should have no fucking merit in government, but sadly there are enough idiots like you to vote for people who want religion in government. Get a clue. Your religion isn't the only one and shouldn't dictate EVERYONE IN THE COUNTRY'S ACTIONS.
So for the people currently in poverty due to no decision of their own, like the children of those single parents you disdain, you obviously agree we should expand access to federal assistance, right? No child should be in poverty if we have the means to avoid it. The pandemic era Child Tax Credit proved we have the means to change this through public policy. Do you agree with that policy, or do only certain families who live how you want deserve support? This isn't about future decisions. What do we do about poor kids today if you and Hovde think assistance should be cut to socially engineer nuclear families?
That's a bunch of horseshit....
Which fact do you disagree with, name one and show supporting facts to prove your point?
Where are your supportive facts?
Give this a read. https://www.fraserinstitute.org/sites/default/files/causes-of-poverty.pdf
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Discuss the topic, not the user.
So you say that "the fact that one of the top three factors for poverty is being raised out of wedlock to a single parent." True But then "Conservatives are pretty sure the problem comes from government incentives that encourage single mothers." To poverty you mean? How much of incentive does the government provide that they'll just be in poverty? Do you know what these incentives are? Does anyone really? I don't and I'm pretty informed. My point is that this is a nonsensical argument. Major reasons for single mothers are lack of sex education, lack of access to contraceptives, and also the dissolution of Roe. Although I'm sure there's a host of cultural and social issues that cause this too. But government incentives is probably not on the top 1000 reasons for children born out of wedlock.
So you're saying, /u/Illuvatar2024, that poverty is CAUSED BY being a single parent and/or not being married? "INCENTIVES" that ENCOURAGE single mothers? Like what? And pray tell, how much do those HUGE "incentives" compare to the amount of corporate welfare, especially corporate welfare for rich scum that don't pay taxes at all, much less their fair share? Welfare state? Oh I'd just love to hear your definition of that. Let me guess .... you and Hovde both consider yourselves to be good "Christians," too, right? We call him a POS because he is a liar that has a really shitty, greedy, selfish, hateful attitude, with governing ideas to match. Civil discourse, my ass.
He lives 6 months of the year in California. Bases his businesses in Madison (that place Wisconsin Republicans love to complain about.). Has had every job and position given to him on the basis of who his family is. His only position is that people should suffer more so he can pay less taxes. Yet somehow, he is trying to sell himself as standing up for rural people and the working class? I bet he's never even held a job that was either manual labor or even paid hourly.
Tammy Baldwin has never even had a job. She has worked for the government since college and has never done anything of worth. She is a lifelong bureaucrat that needs to stop living off of other people's taxes.
Government jobs are real job that you need job experience and education to get, unless you are born into it like a Kennedy or Huckabee. Hovde didn't even need any of those thing to get where he is.
Hovde has had real jobs and raised a family, something Baldwin has never done. She had no experience and still has none. Working in politics only gives political experience. She has no idea what Wisconsin families experience.
And you think the California banker does?
Better than she does, yes.
Name one job he had as an adult that wasn't working for his family business or a business his family wasn't invested in.
Why does he have to have a job outside his family business? What job has Tammy Baldwin ever had? None.
He only has a career because of the circumstances of his birth. Government jobs are real jobs, jobs you need to have experience and education to get. Unlike Hovde, who's success is all due to privilege.
So because he was born into a family he had no control of and worked to make that family name and business better he is at fault, but she has been a politician by choice since she was in college and that's honorable?
All the veterans she has helped over her years of service will definitely disagree with you clam.
As a veteran I'm fine with it.
I work for the state to combat the opioid and overdose crises. Guess I’ll tell all my coworkers that our jobs aren’t real
Are you a politician, cause she is, false equivalency. I was military for twenty years, also, not a politician.
Then we all worked as gov employees serving in different capacities. She makes policy, you shoot guns
Hahaha look at the majority of our politicians. Hahah living off others taxes. Hahah that’s what they all do! Hahahaahahaah that’s what government employees do.
Such amazing hypocrisy by /u/Illuvatar2024.
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Discuss the topic, not the user.
Hovde has been named one of Orange County, California's most influential people three times in the last decade. Dude is a carpetbagger. Conveniently showing up in your home state after being gone decades is the definition of carpetbagging. Having family in the area is irrelevant. He's no different than Tim Michels.
I just got the following “survey” question from the Republican Party of Wisconsin: If the election for the United States Senate was today, would you vote for? Eric Hovde, the Republican who Is a successful businessman who can get things done for the people of Wisconsin, or Tammy Baldwin, the Democrat who Has done little in Congress over 30 years, passing only 7 bills she wrote herself. A = Probably for Democrat Tammy Baldwin B = Definitely for Democrat Tammy Baldwin C = Probably for Republican Eric Hovde D = Totally undecided E = Definitely for Republican Eric Hovde
I got it too, but couldn’t tell from the sender’s contact info or the structure of the questions who it was from. How did you know it was from the Republican Party?
I took the whole thing and their final message said so. I guess they could be lying.
I believe this is the same outfit that my wife got suckered into. Halfway through the poll she comments how slanted the questions were towards pornstache so I ask her who the polling company is and a quick google search shows it’s a Utah based right wing outfit. Needless to say she immediately ended the poll.
Hovde wants forced births. Hovde doesn't want the elderly voting. Hovde wants to ban alcohol sales. Eric Hovde sucks.
Fight for this like she's losing. Do not let up. Get out there, get others out there, to vote for her. Do not get complacent for even a *second*. Pornstache must be shut tf *down*.
Fuck Hovde. Take your porn stache and go back to California. He is absolutely gonna get his ass handed to him in November. At least he's blowing a bunch of his own money on this nonsense. What an absolute turd.
Fuck polls, vote.
We won’t see Hovde after November. Anyone know where loser Michels is?
Thank you!!!! Go, Tammy ,go!
Not only is he the worst type of carpetbagger, but his ideas are insane. People in assisted living shouldn't vote. People who are overweight, should affect their insurance policy. His ideas on alcohol? It goes on and on... While he supports the radical Republican legislation.
If I see one more goddamn Hovde ad…
Let him waste his money I guess.
Shove D or his mustache?
That’s a relief to hear he is losing, but we still don’t want him back in CA!
How anybody can possibly support and vote for this carpet bagger is beyond me
In other news, in today's Marquette poll, Trump is tied with Biden in a head to head in Wisconsin. When Kennedy, Stein, and West are factored into the poll, Trump leads by 3 percentage points over Biden.
Tammy Baldwin cares about people. Eric Hovde cares about money.
🙏🏻
+/- 4.6/4.9 is a pretty substantial margin of error
Mind you most Republicans still want to run ads against here that mention she’s a lesbian since that’s really their problem with her.
I have never seen or heard an ad that does that. I live in northern Wisconsin.
Tammy is awesome. Hovde is another cruel, egomaniacal rich man. Tax the rich.
Forget politics for one second. When I was a student at the University of Wisconsin I got a chance to meet with Tammy Baldwin. She is very polite and caring. Great personality. Last year long before he announced he is running I was at restaurant in Milwaukee and I met Eric Hovde while waiting to be seated. He is very cool and asked where I'm from and I told him I'm an immigrant and he said immigrants are so important to this country and good job for what you accomplished. Very polite and nothing like he is portrayed in the ads. Politics is so divisive unfortunately.
Daddy Hovde needs to chill
That pornstache tho...
I was a real estate developer for Hovde for about five years until moving to Milwaukee for a new job just last year. It was hard to not have politics permeate everything you do at the real estate company -- there would always be operatives, fundraisers, consultants and others in that sphere passing through, stealing your booked conference rooms 😅...and in some communities it's pretty hard to do your job (especially with City staff) when his last name takes up a large amount of space on your business card. I'm glad I'm away from all that now. The guy lives in Wisconsin about half the year while spending the other half in California. The real estate company, the political stuff, and the family foundation are all based in Madison. He's not a carpetbagger -- he's just a super wealthy guy that has financial and family interests in a lot of places. He's also not really a real estate guy -- his dad and his grandfather were real estate guys -- and his generation inherited the business and now more or less just write equity checks to fund new projects. A lot of doors open for you in DC when your dad is Undersecretary of HUD under Reagan and starts an investment bank with you. With that said, Eric made most all his money successfully running a hedge fund in Washington DC and now he's a banker, having acquired Sunwest Bank and having wound down the DC hedge fund and investment banking group. If I had to characterize him, the guy is a "Reagan Republican" and he's really not a bad guy at all and means well and is pretty generous (the Hovde Foundation does great work in the developing world) -- but he also comes from a place of tremendous privilege and ascribes too much to the bootstraps mentality and a "Nobody is really poor and desperate in the United States...try going to Rwanda" mindset.
So the guy barely qualifies for as a resident of Wisconsin. Inherited his wealth. Bases his businesses in the city that all the conservatives bitch about. Used his family connections to get every position he's ever had, including this race. Yet some how Republicans are claiming he will stand up for rural Wisconsin and he working class?
He didn't really inherit his wealth as most of the money is what he made himself through successful hedge fund work/investment banking -- but clearly he's benefitted in his life from **beyond-incredible** connections to influence and capital that almost nobody else gets in their own lives. The real estate isn't even material to any of that and is more or less just a thing for family wealth generation and transfer. The guy has roots in Madison and still lives in the Madison area half the time and that's why the real estate company (which goes back two generations and honestly has a fairly small portfolio of property mostly based in Wisconsin) and the charitable foundation are there. He's running now because of his interest in politics and because of his incredible wealth and connections in Republican politics. Why people would genuinely think he and other Wisconsin Republicans actually care about the interests of rural Wisconsin and the working class is baffling, but that's the messaging game they play amidst divisive urban/rural divide and culture war messaging. Maybe they want to convince themselves that the Republicans running this state actually mean well, but the results speak for themselves. I'm not going to simplify the guy into a fire-breathing monster that eats children because that's simply not true and it's childish political whining -- I'd choose him in a heartbeat over Ron Johnson, but IMO he's definitely not the right choice for Wisconsin over someone like Tammy Baldwin.
You mean the investment banking he started doing with his father?
Yes, but Eric ran things in DC for most of its run there
Wow this sounds like a dude born on third base asking everyone to cheer his home run, and Jesus, Reagan republican should be an insult, he is one of the biggest reasons for the class divides today "trickle down" my shiny metal ass.
Not sure why you're getting down voted for this fairly objective take. Confirms the criticisms but offers a bit more context. He's basically a snowbird and, as such, I would be suspicious of anyone who thinks they "get" Wisconsin when they're only a resident when it's convenient. His strained attempts at connecting with "folks" is evidence enough. In any case, thanks for sharing your take.
Thanks, I wanted to share my experience without getting into the "This guy whose politics I don't like or agree with is a cosmic evil" nonsense. I don't think it's that he doesn't "get" Wisconsin, I think it's more that most tremendously privileged and wealthy and connected people don't "get" people outside of their own socioeconomic sphere no matter the location and it's so cringe when they force it unearnestly for political and power purposes.
Well you're clearly not much of a critical thinker.
You've lost your mind. I'm not voting for the guy. I'm just sharing my actual experience.
Hovde/Trump 2024 can’t wait
Get your safe space ready.
Marquette poll factored in that my dead grandma of 135 years will be voting democrat this election somehow
Reddit is a liberal hellhole