After entering the race for U.S. Senate in Wisconsin just two months ago, Republican challenger Eric Hovde has incumbent Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) on the ropes, having outraised the Democrat as well as being tied in a new poll out today.
With the release of campaign finance reports on Monday, Hovde’s campaign reported just over $9 million in receipts since he entered the race on February 20, while two-term Democratic incumbent Baldwin raised just over $5.4 million in the entire first quarter of the year. On the heels of these disconcerting campaign finance numbers, a Marquette University Law School Poll was released today showing Hovde and Baldwin tied at 50% each among likely voters.
Since entering the race for U.S. Senate, Hovde raised over $1 million from individual contributors and loaned his campaign $8 million. Hovde, a bank owner and multi-millionaire, was heavily recruited by the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the GOP’s Senate campaign arm, to run for the seat partially due to his ability to self-fund his campaign. Since her last re-election in 2018, Sen. Tammy Baldwin has raised over $26 million, with $10.25 million remaining on hand, as of March 31. Hovde ended his first quarter in the race with $5.3 million cash on hand.
Today’s release of the Marquette University Law School Poll is the second such poll featuring Hovde as a named candidate in the race for U.S. Senate. In this poll, conducted at the beginning of the month, among likely voters both Sen. Baldwin and Hovde received 50% support. In the support metric among overall registered voters, 52% support Sen. Tammy Baldwin, with 47% backing Hovde.
The last Marquette Law poll, taken at the end of January, prior to Hovde launching his campaign, only asked favorability questions about the businessman with 7% of voters having a favorable view, 9% having an unfavorable view, and 82% not knowing enough about him. Hovde’s favorable view among voters in just two months has increased to 19%, with 56% still not having heard enough about him yet. This is in comparison to incumbent Sen. Tammy Baldwin whose impression among voters in this poll sat at 47% favorable, 42% unfavorable, with 11% not knowing enough about her.
