Republican businessman Eric Hovde continues to trail incumbent Tammy Baldwin as the Wisconsin Senate race begins the last month of campaigning.
All polls included in FiveThirtyEight's aggregator show the Democrat ahead. And while margins vary, they are all in the single digits. The latest survey, conducted by ActiVote between August 29 and September 29 among 400 likely voters, shows the incumbent with 54% of the support compared to Hovde's 46%.
The previous surveys also shows Hovde trailing Baldwin by a sizable margin. Conducted by The New York Times and Siena College, they surveyed 680 likely and registered voters separately. In both cases Baldwin got 50% of the support, with Hovde getting 42% among registered voters and 43% among likely ones.
Others, however, have shown slimmer margins. One by AtlasIntel conducted between September 20 and 25 among 1,077 likely voters showed Hovde trailing by just one percentage point, 47% to Baldwin's 48%.
Baldwin won re-election by 11 percentage points in 2018 and by 5 points in 2012, vastly outperforming the winner of the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections: both Trump and President Joe Biden did so by less than 1 percentage point. Hovde is also underperforming Trump in this race, with an Axios report showing him behind by more than two percentage points in Real Clear Politics' average.
The seat is seen as key for both parties as they vie for control of the Senate. Democrats narrowly control the Senate, 51-49, but are widely expected to lose the seat being vacated by Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia.
Both candidates have already been criticizing each other as election day gets closer. According to NBC News, one of Baldwin's most recent ads shows children of single mothers, a reference to an audio of Hovde saying children "born out of wedlock" are on "a direct path to a life of poverty."
Hovde, on his end, aired a TV spot saying: "The false attacks are going to keep coming because she has nothing to run on. Her record has failed us on inflation, the border and crime." He adds later, "It's time for change."
Donald Trump endorsed Hovde during an April campaign rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin, where he called Baldwin a "very weak candidate" and told Hovde, "You better win," the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported at the time. "I mean, if you lose to her, that's not a good thing, OK?" Trump said.
© 2024 Latin Times. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
