Abortion, border and inflation. Takeaways from Eric Hovde remarks after his primary win

MADISON — There’s “no question” the economy will be the number one issue in the U.S. Senate race on Nov. 5, Republican candidate Eric Hovde said Wednesday during a WisPolitics Q&A event.

Here are some takeaways from the banking and real estate mogul’s conversation, one day after winning the GOP primary to challenge Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin as she seeks a third term.

Economic strife is top of mind

“The amount of people I've interfaced with over the last seven months are thousands upon thousands of people. I'm talking to people every day. It is without question, the economy,” Hovde told WisPolitics president Jeff Mayers. “And you can define that as jobs, you can define that as inflation, overall economic growth.”

Consumer prices rose 2.9% over the last year through July, the U.S. Labor Department reported Wednesday in its consumer price index, an annual rate that suggests the inflation surge of 2022 continues to ease. The annual inflation rate hadn't dipped below 3% since March 2021. Inflation has gently declined this summer, following a brief spike in spring.

More: Eric Hovde says he'll outperform past Republican candidates in liberal bastion Dane County

U.S.-Mexico border a ‘rotten onion’

“I call it the rotten onion. And the reason why I call it a rotten onion is because, like an onion, there's many layers to this open border,” Hovde said of what he deemed the second-most important issue of the election, referring primarily to the fentanyl crisis.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has reported about 10 million nationwide encounters with removable noncitizens since 2021. The Department of Homeland security defines “encounter” as any encounter of a removable noncitizen by Customs and Border Protection Office of Field Operations or Border Patrol.

The legal immigration system, however, Hovde said, is “an absolute farce,” too difficult and should be fixed.

“Our legal immigration process is fundamentally broken, so we've got to fix that, and we have to close the illegal immigration process,” he said.

More: Tammy Baldwin maintains lead over Eric Hovde in new Marquette poll of Wisconsin voters

Abortion policy should be decided via state referendum

“I believe we Wisconsinites need to resolve this issue with a commonsense and compassionate approach to a woman that is in that tough spot. How do we do that? I think we do it through a referendum,” Hovde said, noting that he has two daughters and three grandchildren.

Hovde said he wants to see “less abortions,” but has “always agreed with exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother.”

“And, I agree that early on in a woman's pregnancy, she should have a right to choose,” he said. “But there comes a point where a baby can be born healthy and alive that it's unconscionable … thinking of terminating that child's life.”

He declined to say how many weeks that should be, but pointed to countries that ban abortion “somewhere in the first trimester … or in the very beginning of the second trimester.” He also pushed back on the idea that a national abortion ban could be enacted.

During his 2012 campaign, Hovde said he was "totally opposed to abortion." In a Wisconsin State Journal candidate questionnaire at the time, he said, "I am pro-life and I oppose legalized abortion. I believe contraception should be legal."

Politifact: Tammy Baldwin says Eric Hovde wants to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Does he?

‘I don’t know how much I’ll spend’ on the race

“I've made a commitment, but there's no way I'm going to be able to even come close to funding what (Baldwin’s supporters are) putting in,” Hovde said.

According to a financial disclosure form filed last month, Hovde listed assets worth between $195.4 million and $564.5 million, much of it in Madison and Milwaukee real estate holdings, corporate securities and stock in Sunwest Bank, the Utah-based financial institution for which he is chairman and CEO. If he is elected he would be among the wealthiest members of the Senate.

Hovde plowed $5 million of his own resources into his campaign in the second quarter, according to filings. Baldwin raised about $7.5 million in that period.

Jessie Opoien can be reached at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Takeaways from Eric Hovde's remarks day after his primary victory