>> Candidates for the U.S. Senate in Wisconsin square off
in a statewide debate. A week from tonight, incumbent Democrat
Tammy Baldwin and Republican Eric Hovde appear on the
televised debate Friday, October 18th at 7 p.m. You can watch
that here. And then join right after for "Here& Now" for
highlights and analysis tonight. Reporter Steven Potter tells us
about the candidates and where they stand.
>> We need to put on the red, white and blue jersey. I love my
country and come together as Americans. I believe in this
country and what our Constitution stands for and what
it's provided the people of this country. And hey, Wisconsin,
it's really important to me that Wisconsin working families have
somebody fighting for them. >> And not just somebody in
there fighting for the rich and powerful. State motto is
forward. >> The top two candidates for
U.S. Senate were both born and raised in Madison, and both say
that their primary reason for running is to help their fellow
Wisconsinites and Americans. But that's where the similarities
end between Eric Hovde and Tammy Baldwin.
>> I will be a Senator for all of Wisconsin.
>> Baldwin, the Democrat, has spent more than three decades as
an elected official. Previously rising through the ranks from
city council to the state legislature and then to the U.S.
House of Representatives. She says what she's done and learned
over those years is what qualifies her now for a third
term in the U.S. Senate. >> The experience and the
seniority matters. Oftentimes, people criticize about the years
of experience, but I can tell you that it is a complicated
process, and the relationships that I have across the party
aisle have allowed me to do really big things for Wisconsin
and for the nation. >> Hovde, the Republican, says
his decades of success as a real estate developer and a bank
owner, as well as running a foundation to help children,
gives him the insight to help lead the country in a new
direction. real world. I've actually built
apartment complexes around our state and do land development
for single family housing, so I have a wealth of experiences
that can come to apply to, you know, Washington, D.C. Democrats
currently have a razor thin majority in the U.S. Senate.
>> The winner in Wisconsin could tip the balance, given that
there's also a presidential race this year. The issues dominating
the U.S. Senate race are driven by the top of the ticket, and
those are inflation and the economy, immigration and
abortion. On inflation and the economy, Hovde says Democrats
government spending is at fault. >> We've gone through one of the
worst bouts of inflation was all self-created by the excessive
spending. We're bankrupting our country. So the first thing you
have to do is pull down that spending back to pre-COVID
levels. That's the very first thing. And then you have to put
a long glide path of trying to reduce spending and trying to
get on top of this deficit spending.
pandemic is where inflation began, but says that's not
what's driving prices up today. >> We saw prices go up because
there were supply chain disruptions, and we saw prices
go up because there was a lot of demand and little supply. Now
that that has rectified, it is corporate greed that is causing
prices to stay high, even though their cost of production has
gone down dramatically. drastically different positions
immigration and the southern border.
>> So the southern border we need to restore order there and
there are clear things that need to happen, including Moore, US
Border Patrol officers fixing the system whereby people seek
asylum and don't have a case processed for years. It should
be months, not years. >> We have to close our southern
border, whether that is with a wall with greater security, it's
going to take a multitude of different things. We have to
change the laws to allow us to remove those people, but we also
have to fix legal immigration because we do have a lot of good
people that we want to come here to work in our farms, to work in
our factories, or look at our health care system.
>> And lastly, the issue of abortion has emerged as a
singular topic that's driving many voters around the country
and in Wisconsin to the polls. >> Life is a wonderful thing,
and I agree that there should be exceptions for rape, incest, and
the health of the mother. And I agree that early on in a woman's
pregnancy, she should have a right to choose.
>> I am the leader in the fight to restore Roe v Wade. It's
through a bill that I lead called the Women's Health
Protection Act. That bill would codify Roe v Wade at the federal
level, put it into our national laws.
>> Political scientists and pollsters around the state have
noted how difficult it will be for Eric Hovde to beat Tammy
Baldwin in November. The senator has strong name recognition and
support not only in Democratic strongholds of Madison and
Milwaukee, but also in some rural parts of the state.
>> My way of approaching both the job as senator as well as
the campaigns, is to try to travel everywhere. I possibly
can in the state of Wisconsin and meet people where they are,
listen to their concerns and their aspirations, and have that
inform the work that I do and the campaign that I run.
>> Still, Eric Hovde says his experience outside of politics
makes him the better candidate, and he thinks he's got a chance
at winning. >> If you want this country to
go in a better direction and have somebody who is doing it
because he loves his country, he realizes the country is failing
economically and we have to get people who understand our
globalized, financialized understands real life