Contenders in key Wisconsin Senate race come out swinging after primaries

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Contenders in key Wisconsin Senate race come out swinging after primaries

2024-08-15 02:14 Last Updated At：02:21

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Republican millionaire businessman Eric Hovde and Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin are wasting no time going after one another.

Hovde easily captured the GOP nomination on Tuesday, officially setting the field in Wisconsin's closely watched Senate race. The seat in battleground Wisconsin is seen as essential for Democrats, who know they must win there if they hope to maintain majority control of the Senate. A win there for Republicans would dramatically increase their chances of gaining the upper hand in an election landscape that has Democrats defending far more Senate seats this year.

Hovde is banking on his deep pockets and an endorsement from former President Donald Trump to knock off Baldwin, a liberal Democrat who has honed her ability to appeal to key independent and moderate voters. He faced only nominal opposition in the primary and has been focused on Baldwin since he got into the race. He’s already poured $13 million of his personal wealth into the contest in just four months.

“Tammy Baldwin has been in Washington for twenty-five years and things have only gotten worse,” Hovde said in a statement after his primary win. “It’s time for change.”

Hovde said at a WisPolitics.com luncheon Wednesday that he expected Baldwin's side to spend $100 million on the race and there was no way he would come close to matching it with his own money.

Hovde’s wealth, primarily his management of Utah-based Sunwest Bank and ownership of a $7 million Laguna Beach, California, estate, has been a key line of attack from Baldwin, who has tried to portray him as an outsider out of touch with Wisconsin values.

“Eric Hovde is a multi millionaire California bank owner who has insulted our seniors, our farmers, our moms, and just about everyone else in our great state,” Baldwin said in a statement after Hovde's primary win Tuesday. "While he runs to put the wealthy and well connected like himself first, I will always stand up for the working people of Wisconsin.”

Hovde, who was born in Madison and owns a house there, pushed back against that claim Wednesday.

“Everybody here knows I’m not a Californian," Hovde said at WisPolitics. "I’ve never been a resident of the state of California one year of my life.”

Baldwin launched a rural Wisconsin tour on Wednesday with a stop at a farm in Merrill before a brewery tour in Chippewa Falls in a key swing area of western Wisconsin. Hovde aired two new positive ads featuring his wife and others touting his charitable work and his battle with multiple sclerosis.

Television ads from Baldwin and her backers have focused on comments from Hovde espousing his opposition to abortion rights, appearing to denigrate the work ethic of farmers and the propriety of nursing home residents voting.

Hovde has accused Baldwin of distorting his comments, lying about his record and misleading voters.

Hovde’s ads have hit on national themes Republicans are using against Democrats this cycle: blaming Baldwin for high inflation, what he says is a failed border policy and crime. Hovde has also tried to paint Baldwin as a career politician too extreme for Wisconsin, an attack Republicans tried in both of her previous two winning Senate campaigns to no avail.

While Baldwin’s voting record is liberal, she has emphasized bipartisanship throughout the campaign. Her first television ad noted that her buy-American bill was signed into law by Trump. In July, she touted Senate committee approval of a bill she co-authored with Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance, that seeks to ensure that taxpayer-funded inventions are manufactured in the United States.

Baldwin won her first Senate race in 2012, against popular former Republican Gov. Tommy Thompson, by almost 6 points. She was aided that year by having former President Barack Obama on the ballot. He carried Wisconsin by nearly 7 points. In 2018, Baldwin cruised to reelection by 11 points over then-state Sen. Leah Vukmir.

That win is even more striking given that four of the past six presidential races in Wisconsin have been decided by less than a point. In that same 2018 election, Democrat Tony Evers defeated then-Gov. Scott Walker by just over 1 point.

Baldwin again finds herself on the ballot in a presidential year. But unlike 12 years ago, when Obama won by a comfortable margin in Wisconsin, the latest Marquette University Law School poll conducted July 24 through Aug. 1 showed the presidential contest in Wisconsin to be about even.

The same poll showed Baldwin slightly ahead of Hovde among likely voters.

Hovde said Wednesday that he wasn't concerned.

“I’m going up against somebody who has spent their entire life in politics," Hovde said. “I feel really good about where I am. The heart of this campaign will now start getting litigated.”

A win by Baldwin is critical for Democrats who are defending 23 seats in the Senate, including three held by independents who caucus with Democrats clinging to a 51-49 majority. That’s compared with just 11 seats that Republicans hope to keep in their column.

If elected, Hovde would be one of the richest members of the Senate, based on his campaign finance report. That filing showed he had assets worth between about $195 million and more than $564 million. Baldwin listed assets between $601,000 and nearly $1.3 million.

Falcons turn to rookie QB Michael Penix Jr. for key game vs Giants

2024-12-21 22:47 Last Updated At：23:00

New York Giants (2-12) at Atlanta (7-7)

Sunday, 1 p.m. EST, Fox

BetMGM NFL Odds: Falcons by 8 1/2.

Against the spread: Giants 4-10; Falcons 6-8.

Series record: Falcons lead 14-12.

Last meeting: Falcons beat the Giants 17-14 on Sept. 26, 2021, in East Rutherford, N.J.

Last week: Giants lost to the Ravens 35-14; Falcons beat the Raiders 15-9.

Giants offense: overall (29), rush (18), pass (30), scoring (32)

Giants defense: overall (T21), rush (31), pass (7), scoring (20)

Falcons: overall (9), rush (12), pass (6), scoring (20)

Falcons defense: overall (20), rush (13), pass (24), scoring (20)

Turnover differential: Giants minus-8; Falcons minus-7.

WR Malik Nabers had his third double-digit catch game of the season against the Ravens and joined Odell Beckham Jr., Jaylen Waddle and Brock Bowers as the only rookies in NFL history with three games of 10-or-more receptions. The No. 6 overall pick in the draft, Nabers has 90 catches for 901 yards and is two shy of breaking the Giants rookie record of 91 held by Beckham (2014) and Saquon Barkley (2018).

QB Michael Penix Jr. will make his first career start after the Falcons benched 13-year veteran Kirk Cousins. Penix, the Heisman Trophy runner-up at Washington in 2023, was the No. 8 pick in this year's draft but wasn't expected to land the starting job so soon. The timetable ramped up dramatically when Cousins threw nine interceptions and just one touchdown over the past five games. After pulling out an ugly 15-9 win at Las Vegas, where it became clear that the Falcons had lost confidence in their passing game, the decision was made to switch to Penix.

Atlanta's defensive front vs. Giants offensive line. After managing a league-low 10 sacks through their first 11 games, the Falcons have turned up the pressure with 13 sacks in three games since their bye week. Eight players have notched sacks during that span, led by OLB Kaden Elliss and DE Arnold Ebiketie with three apiece. With Drew Lock set to return as New York's quarterback after missing last week with a heel injury, the Falcons will be looking to bring the heat against a team that has allowed 45 sacks, tied for seventh most in the NFL.

Giants: QB Tommy DeVito, who started last week in place of Lock, is out of concussion protocol and should be the backup. … G Aaron Stinnie (concussion), LB Patrick Johnson (knee) and LB Bobby Okereke (back) are out. ... CB Greg Stroman (shoulder/shin) is doubtful. .. New York is hopeful CB Deonte Banks (ribs) can return after sitting out the last three games.

Falcons: K Younghoe Koo was placed on injured reserve with an undisclosed issue, knocking him out for the rest of the regular season and putting his future with the team in doubt. Koo had been one of the league's most reliable kickers, but he has missed a career-high nine field-goal attempts this season. ... The Falcons brought in Riley Patterson to take Koo's spot. WR Casey Washington (concussion) is out.

The Falcons have won three straight in the series. ... New York's most recent win over the Falcons was a 30-20 triumph in 2014. ... The Giants' most recent win in Atlanta was a 31-10 blowout in 2007. ... The teams have met once in the playoffs, with New York rolling to a 24-2 wild-card win during the 2008 season. ... The first win in Falcons' history was a 27-16 victory over the Giants at Yankee Stadium during Atlanta's inaugural season in 1966.

The Giants tied their franchise record for consecutive losses at nine last weekend. They have done it three times in their 100-year history, the most recent time in 2019. … Lock passed for 313 yards, threw two TDs and ran for one for Denver in 2020 in his only career start against the Falcons. … RB Tyrone Tracy ranks second among rookies with 695 yards rushing. He has scored a TD in his past three road games. … WR Wan’Dale Robinson has a career-high 71 receptions. .. Burns has his eighth sack of the season last week and became the sixth player since 2000 with at least 7 1/2 sacks in each of his first six seasons. He had two sacks in his most recent game against the Falcons, playing for the Panthers in 2023. … ILB Micah McFadden has a career-high 102 tackles. … Penix was among a record-tying six QBs taken in the first round of the 2024 draft. He is the fifth member of that group to earn a start, ahead of only Minnesota's J.J. McCarthy, who won't play until 2025 because of a knee injury. ... Falcons RB Bijan Robinson rushed for a career-high 125 yards on 22 carries against Las Vegas. That gave the second-year back the first 1,000-yard season of his young career, pushing him to 1,102 yards. ... Robinson has topped 100 yards in three of the past five games, and he has at least 20 carries in four of the past five games as the Falcons turned away from their passing game amid Cousins' struggles. ... Elliss has a career-high 124 tackles after making 11 stops at Las Vegas. ... OLB DeAngelo Malone has his first two sacks of the season against the Raiders. ... P Bradley Pinion had four punts downed inside the 10, including two inside the 5, in the Monday night win.

Robinson is a good bet to keep getting plenty of carries and rushing yards, especially with the Falcons breaking in a new quarterback. He's also an option in the passing game, providing a safe outlet for short-to-medium passes that would further lessen the burden on Penix.

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