Five takeaways from a fiery Wisconsin Senate debate

Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) and Republican challenger Eric Hovde squared off on a debate stage Friday evening in Madison in a fiery exchange of attacks that showed how intense this race has become after largely flying under the radar for months.

Hovde wasn’t as highly touted a Senate Republican candidate as some others trying to knock off Democratic incumbents, but the race in Wisconsin has become extremely tight in recent weeks, mirroring the small margin of difference between Vice President Harris and former President Trump in recent state-wide polls.

Friday was the only debate between Baldwin, a two-term incumbent, and Hovde, a multimillionaire real-estate mogul and banker, and Republicans have criticized Baldwin for not agreeing to more stage encounters. She participated in three debates in 2018.

Baldwin is a skilled politician with a record in Washington as a leader on women’s health issues, who served 14 years in the House.

Her re-election race was initially seen as less competitive than the reelection bids by Sens. Jon Tester (D-Mont.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Bob Casey (D-Pa.), and Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) but some Republican strategists now view Baldwin as the next most vulnerable Democratic incumbent after Tester and Brown.

Here are five takeaways from the debate.

The race has turned nasty

The tone and tenor of the debate quickly became pointed, personal and downright nasty as the candidates accused each other of lying, carpet-bagging, ethical lapses and callousness.

Both candidates set aside any notion of “Midwestern nice” to go for the jugular, using any opportunity to take a shot at the opponent.

Hovde started the debate by jabbing Baldwin for not being more eager to debate:.

“It’s finally nice getting this debate, Sen. Baldwin,” he said with a dose of irony.

Baldwin took a strong shot at Hovde on the first question about the Affordable Care Act, accusing Hovde of calling the popular provision to let children stay on their parents’ health insurance plans until age 26 “stupid” and of wanting to repeal the law entirely.

She then accused him of opposing negotiations with pharmaceutical companies to lower drug costs.

That earned a sharp reply from Hovde.

“I can’t believe what I just heard. It’s one lie after another. … I believe our drug prices are too high,” he said.

Then he pivoted to an attack on Baldwin’s partner, Maria Brisbane, a private wealth advisor, who consults on industries regulated by Baldwin.

He repeated that attack several times throughout the debate, prompting a frustrated Baldwin to tell her opponent to “stay out of my personal life.”

Hovde, meanwhile, took offense to Baldwin’s repeated attacks that he’s not a true Wisconsinite after living for years in California, and snapped at her for not attending the University of Wisconsin as an undergrad.

Baldwin countered by noting she went to law school there.

Issues that favor Baldwin, Democrats take center stage

The questioners at the debate sponsored by the Wisconsin Counties Association, which included reporters and anchors for PBS Wisconsin, WKBT News 8 Now, Big Radio, TMJ4, Milwaukee, and WSAW-TV, asked questions on many of the topics that Democrats love to discuss.

The first question was on the future of the Affordable Care Act, an issue that Senate GOP leaders have largely downplayed this year.

The second was what the candidates would do to reduce 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 childcare, another issue in the Democrats’ wheelhouse.

The fourth question was about protecting Social Security, an issue where polls show more voters trust Democrats over Republicans to handle well.

The fifth question was about long-term health care for seniors, something that Republicans don’t generally view as within the purview of the federal government’s responsibilities.

The six question was about abortion rights — which is the issue that Democrats are staking their hopes on in the 2024 election and a topic they raise repeatedly on the campaign trail and in political ads.

It wasn’t until the seventh question, nearly 20 minutes into the debate, were the candidates asked about immigration, the issue that Republicans have made a top focus in the 2024 campaign.

A few questions later the candidates were asked whether the next president should stay the course in supporting the war in Ukraine, another issue that largely divides Republicans.

Hovde initially sidestepped the question of whether the next president should continue to fund massive amounts of military aid to Ukraine but when pressed he conceded that “the amounts of tens of billions of dollars that have gone to Ukraine that are not accountable causes great concern for me.”

“I don’t think we should continue to fund endlessly money into Ukraine,” he said.

Baldwin by contrast declared: “I strongly support backing Ukraine, this is really, literally about democracy versus dictatorship.”

Hovde cedes ground to Democrats on key issues

In one of the more surprising developments of the evening, Hovde ceded ground to Democrats on three major issues: prescription drug prices, Supreme Court reform and some types of environmental regulation.

Early in the debate, Hovde said he would favor more government negotiation with pharmaceutical companies to bring down the cost of prescription drugs, something that was a key reform in President Biden’s inflation reduction act.

The Republican bristled at the claim that he opposes negotiations with drug companies, insisting that he would like to see the government flex its purchasing power to drive down drug costs.

“I believe we need to negotiate with Big Phrma. I think our drug prices are too high. When I first started taking my medications for [multiple sclerosis] they cost about $6,000 a year, now they’re costing $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 Supreme Court reforms, including term limits on the sitting justices, something that Biden proposed in a July Washington Post op-ed.  

“I think we should absolutely have a code of ethics for the justices. I don’t think they should be engaging in any kind of private investment in the stock market while they serve in that capacity and I understand the desire to have a term limit. I’m supportive of term limits,” he said.

And Hovde said he would support tougher government regulation of PFAS, so-called forever chemicals, that pollute waterways and water sources.

Baldwin’s life partner becomes a flashpoint

Baldwin became famous in 1998 for being the first openly gay non-incumbent elected to Congress, but her partner, Maria Brisbane, became a controversial topic at Friday’s debate because of her career as a wealth adviser.

Hovde repeatedly accused Baldwin of having a financial conflict of interest by regulating industries that Brisbane advises on and for not disclosing her partner’s financial assets.

Baldwin and Brisbane own assets together but since they are not married, Baldwin does not have to publicly disclose all of her partner’s holdings.

Hovde has raised the issue in the campaign because Baldwin chairs an appropriations subcommittee that oversees the Department of Health and Human Services and the National Institutes of Health and Brisbane managed a biotech mutual fund in the past.

“I’m not taking Big Pharma’s money. I’m not taking special interest money like Sen. Baldwin. In fact, her partner is making money off of it and doesn’t even disclose the profit she’s making,” he said.

Baldwin let her opponent know in blunt terms later in the debate that she doesn’t appreciate the personal attacks.

“Eric Hovde, should stay out of my personal life,” she said pointedly.

But Hovde refused to drop it and insisted the issue is far bigger than a matter of personal privacy.

“Sen. Baldwin, I could care less about your personal life but when your partner is investing in companies that you’re overseeing and you’re not disclosing that, that’s an absolute conflict of interest,” he said.

Both candidates refuse to back away from misleading negative ads

At a time when disinformation in the 2024 election has become a major topic of discussion, both candidates refused to disown political attack ads that third-party fact-checking groups found to be misleading.

Shannon Sims, the anchor of TMJ4, Milwaukee, asked Baldwin about an ad that alleged Hovde called farmers “lazy” and asked Hovde about an ad that alleged Baldwin funded a clinic offering transgender therapy to minors without parental consent, both of which had been determined to be “false” by non-partisan organizations.

“Both of these ads end with you saying, ‘I approve this message.’ You could pull these ads, why don’t you do it,” the questioner asked, noting that many voters are “frustrated” with negative misleading ads.

Baldwin refused to back down, arguing that she has every right to “amplify” what her opponent has said in the past.

“I think it’s really hard to say an ad is false when you are hearing Eric Hovde in his own words, you’re seeing this with your eyes, I’m telling you things he has said,” she said.

Hovde also stuck to his attacks on Baldwin.

“Every single one of Sen. Baldwin’s ads has been a lie. I’m supposedly the jerk from California, yet I’m born and raised in this state [and] spent my last 12 years living where [Baldwin] grew up,” he said. “I vote here. I live here. I’m a UW grad.”

On the subject of the clinic allegedly proving the transgender therapy, Hovde argued that the organization changed its website to obscure the nature of its services.

“She funded an earmark for that clinic. The clinic changed what’s on its website and took down that it did it without parental approval,” he said.