Businessman Eric Hovde won Wisconsin’s Republican Senate primary, NBC News projects, opening a critical battleground state race against Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin.
Hovde, backed by former President Donald Trump and other national Republicans, easily fended off two lesser-known primary opponents, while Baldwin ran unopposed seeking a third term.
Baldwin’s seat is a priority for both parties in the battle for control of the tightly divided Senate. He has worked to build a large campaign war chest and tap into his appeal in rural areas of the state.
In 2018, Baldwin won re-election by 11 points after winning by 5 points in 2012. By comparison, Trump and President Joe Biden carried the state by less than 1 percentage point in the last two White House races. Baldwin has also been doing better than the top Democratic ticket in some recent Wisconsin polls.
Hovde, an independently wealthy businessman who ran unsuccessfully for the Senate in 2012, has already loaned his campaign $13 million. But Baldwin has maintained his financial advantage, spending more than $30 million so far and $6.4 million remaining in his campaign account as of July 24, according to the most recent campaign finance reports. Hovde’s campaign has reported spending $13.6 million so far and had $3.1 million as of July 24.
With Hovde long considered the winner of the GOP nomination, the two candidates have already traded barbs.
One of Baldwin’s latest ads features children of single mothers and highlights Hovde’s voice that children “born out of wedlock” are on a “straight path to poverty.”
“Just goes to show that Eric Hovde is clueless,” someone says in the ad, with another person later adding, “What’s wrong with this guy?”
Hovde has spoken out against Baldwin’s negative ads, releasing a TV spot in which he says, “The false attacks will continue because he has nothing to run to. His record has failed us on inflation, the border, and crime.” He later adds, “It’s time to change.”
In addition to the Senate race, Wisconsin voters cast ballots in the House and local primaries.
Business owner Rebecca Cooke won the Democratic primary in the 3rd District and advanced to the general election against GOP Rep. Derrick Van Orden. He switched the seat to Republicans in 2022 after retiring longtime Democratic Rep. Ron Kind, winning by nearly 4 points.
Members of both parties condemned Van Orden last year after he cursed at a group of Senate pages during an incident in the Capitol Rotunda.
In the 8th District, Trump-backed businessman Tony Wied won the Republican primary, tying up a matchup with Democratic OB-GYN Kristin Lyerly. The seat was previously held by GOP Rep. Mike Gallagher, who resigned earlier this year.
Wied and Lyerly will now compete in two separate elections in November: one for the remainder of Gallager’s term and the other for a full two-year term beginning in January. Wied is favored in the GOP-leaning district.
Wisconsin voters also rejected two proposed constitutional amendments backed by Republicans who control the legislature that would have limited Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ authority to allocate state and federal dollars, according to the Associated Press.
A member of the Minnesota “squad” is fighting primary challengers
Minnesota, Connecticut and Vermont also held their primary elections on Tuesday.
Two members of Congress in Minnesota survived their primaries. Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar defeated former Minneapolis City Councilman Don Samuels, who lost to him by just 2 percentage points in the 2022 primary, and two other challengers in the solid-blue 5th District.
Two of Omar’s colleagues from a progressive “group” of lawmakers who have criticized Israel’s war with Hamas lost their primaries in recent weeks.
Meanwhile, GOP Rep. Michelle Fischbach won her NBC News project, fending off a primary challenger in the deep-red 7th District after failing to win the state party’s endorsement in April.
Fischbach promoted Trump’s support on TV. His main opponent was businessman Steve Boyd, who said in a statement in April that his failure to win the party’s endorsement “shows that the American people are showing that they are fed up with the administration in Washington.”
In Minnesota’s battleground state for the 2nd District, Democratic Rep. Angie Craig will officially face Marine Corps veteran Joe Teirab in November. Teirab, who received Trump’s endorsement in the GOP primary, was the leading Republican candidate after his main rival dropped out last month.
Biden won the 2nd District in 2020 by 7 points, while Craig won his third term in 2022 by 5 points.
In the Senate race, former NBA player Royce White, who has a long history of incendiary comments, won a rich Republican primary to take on Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar.
White led the GOP field in fundraising and won the state party endorsement. However, he has faced criticism for unpaid child support.
Although Republicans have been trying to get Minnesota into the running for president, defeating Klobuchar would be a difficult task. He has won all three of his last races by at least 20 percentage points.
Notable results in Connecticut and Vermont
In Connecticut’s competitive 5th District, Democratic Rep. Jahana Hayes will again face Republican former state Sen. George Logan, the AP predicts, after each ran unopposed in their primaries. Hayes won Logan by just one point in 2022, after Biden won the district by nearly 11 points two years earlier.
Elsewhere in Connecticut, Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy ran in his primary and is heading into the election as a heavy favorite against Republican bar owner Matthew Corey, whom he defeated in 2018.
And in Vermont, Republican Gov. Phil Scott and independent Sen. Bernie Sanders are headed to the general election, according to the AP; they are not expected to face serious competition.
Sanders faces Republican Gerald Malloy, who ran unsuccessfully for the Senate two years ago. AP projects Democrat Esther Charlestin, a former member of the Middlebury Selectboard, won the primary against Scott, who is a heavy favorite to win a second term despite Vermont’s deep blue hue.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
