HUDSON, Wis. — As campaign season winds to a close, the U.S. Senate race in Wisconsin has emerged as one of the nation's most competitive, with tens of millions of dollars flowing from incumbent Democrat Tammy Baldwin and Republican challenger Eric Hovde.
The latest Marquette University Law School poll shows a tightening of the race in recent weeks, with Baldwin leading by only a few points. With Democrats holding only a narrow majority in the Senate, a handful of races such as Wisconsin's may determine the balance of power in the federal government's upper chamber.
On Friday, Hovde made a stop across the river from the Twin Cities in Hudson, where he addressed a group of voters at Ziggy's restaurant downtown.
The candidate highlighted his background in business, which includes real estate development and banking, and laid out an economic agenda.
"The first thing we've got to do is stop the underlying cause of inflation because people have been hammered. It's the food costs, everything they buy," Hovde said. "Look at the cost of buying an automobile or a used automobile. It's through the roof, or housing costs. So we've got to tackle that, which is the reckless spending that's been going on in D.C."
Meanwhile, Senator Baldwin spent the week on a five-day bus tour of the state. The campaign estimated that Baldwin traveled more than 1,000 miles between 16 different counties.
During this tour, Baldwin also focused on similar kitchen-table economic issues. At one stop in Wausau, for example, she expressed support for cracking down on price-gouging, which Vice President Kamala Harris has also pledged to do if elected.
"The supply chains were fixed. Input price for producers has gone down," Baldwin said, "and they haven't readjusted the price down."
According to USA Today, more than $180 million has been spent in this race, making it the sixth-most expensive U.S. Senate race in the country. Both sides have run a series of negative advertisements against one another.
"The advertising is hard to wrap your mind around. There's so much money coming in this race, which is not unlike a lot of races around the country," said Neil Kraus, a professor of political science at UW-River Falls. "What we're seeing now is just a flood of advertising in every conceivable venue, a lot of it done by campaigns but a lot of it done by these outside groups."
Unlike its neighbor Minnesota, where all statewide offices are held by Democrats, the state of Wisconsin is much more politically mixed. The governor is Democrat but the legislature is controlled by Republicans, and there is currently one Republican and one Democrat representing each of the two U.S. Senate seats.
"There's different traditions here. A pretty strong independent tradition, a strong Democratic party tradition, a strong third-party tradition and a very strong Republican tradition," Kraus said. "It's become almost exactly split, almost precisely evenly split between the two parties."
With the stakes so high, both candidates have campaigned aggressively. For Baldwin, that has meant emphasizing abortion rights. During a debate in October, she called attention to past comments Hovde made while campaigning for political office in 2012, in which he said he was "totally opposed to abortion."
"My opponent has said he's 100% opposed to abortion rights," Baldwin said. "I'm trying to lead the way, to restore Roe."
In an interview Friday after his event in Hudson, Hovde clarified that he supports exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother, as well as a right to choose "early on" in pregnancy. He also said he would not support any national ban on abortion, if elected to the Senate.
"No, Senator Baldwin has been just running one lie after another. I do not support a national abortion ban. I'm opposed to that," Hovde said. "I believe the people of Wisconsin should decide this through a referendum."