WisDems Statement: California Bank Owner Eric Hovde Enters Senate Race Running to Put the Ultra Rich Ahead of Middle-Class Wisconsinites

MADISON, Wis. — Today, Democratic Party of Wisconsin Rapid Response Director Arik Wolk released the following statement ahead of Eric Hovde’s (R–Laguna Beach) Senate campaign announcement:

“California bank owner Eric Hovde is running for Senate to impose his self-serving agenda, putting ultra rich people like himself ahead of middle-class Wisconsinites. Hovde would vote to pass a national abortion ban, raise taxes on working families and seniors while cutting Social Security and Medicare, and repeal the Affordable Care Act. California Hovde is set up for a bruising primary battle with fellow GOP megamillionaire Scott Mayer, but his self-serving agenda and attacks on Wisconsinites’ freedoms are exactly why Wisconsinites will reject him and send him back to his $7 million California mansion.”

More information on California bank owner Eric Hovde and his self-serving agenda:

• California bank owner Eric Hovde (R-Laguna Beach) has spent so long in his $7 million California oceanfront mansion that he has been named one of Orange County’s most influential people — three times. While he’s been running his $2.8 billion bank and living on the only stretch of private beach on the entire California coastline, he’s missed Wisconsin elections over and over again, including during his Cabo yacht trip. In the most recent election he actually bothered to vote in, he had his ballot sent to his mansion in Laguna Beach. He’s shot TV commercials in California, which even Republican strategists have admitted that Hovde’s commercials “are very popular… in the state of California.” On the day he got the endorsement of Mitch McConnell and DC Republicans, Hovde was caught partying it up in Orange County, and even admitted earlier this month that his “main business” is his $2.8 billion California bank.

• Hovde, a California bank owner, only cares about the ultra-wealthy like himself and looks down on Wisconsin’s middle-class families. He says most Americans’ civic knowledge is “deplorable,” remarked “females, they spend too much time with what’s going on in Hollywood” and “males, they engross themselves too much with sports,” told a crowded room he was sick and tired of reading “sob stories” about poor Americans, and insulted Wisconsin farmers saying they don’t engage in “hard labor.”

• Eric Hovde would help Mitch McConnell and Washington Republicans ban abortion, gut Social Security and Medicare, repeal the Affordable Care Act, roll back caps on the price of prescription drugs, and cut taxes for rich people like themselves while raising taxes on middle-class families.

  • Hovde has already said he would put Wisconsinites’ hard-earned retirement savings on the chopping block, that he “absolutely” wants to cut Social Security benefits and raise the retirement age, and has already proposed raising taxes on 72 million Americans including retirees, while cutting lifelines for struggling families.
  • Hovde supports a national abortion ban. He has said he is “totally opposed to abortion,” “100% pro life,” and “oppose[s] legalized abortion,” “from conception.” It’s no wonder he advocated for the overturning of Roe v. Wade and was endorsed by a far-right anti-abortion group that supports making abortion “legally unacceptable” and said Hovde would support federal anti-abortion measures.
  • Hovde will work with Donald Trump to strip critical health protections from Wisconsinites and “terminate” the Affordable Care Act. Hovde said a full repeal of the Affordable Care Act was one of his top priorities and proposed “defund[ing] every aspect of the Affordable Care Act.” including the provision protecting the over 850,000 Wisconsinites with pre-existing conditions and the Tammy Baldwin-written plan to allow people to stay on their family’s health plan until age 26.

• Hovde is facing a potentially “messy” and “bitter” GOP primary that conservatives in Wisconsin are calling a “Civil War.” Scott Mayer and David Clarke have feuded with the NRSC for backing Hovde and attacked Hovde for his California ties, with Clarke and in-state conservative talkers consistently lobbing attacks at wealthy self-funding candidates like Hovde. Meanwhile, some Republicans have questioned if Hovde can be trusted in the Senate, and called for him to be removed from the voter rolls for his spotty voting record.

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