close
close

Association-anemone

Bite-sized brilliance in every update

    • GOP Senate candidate Hovde calls the loss “painful,” but he won’t give up
    asane

    GOP Senate candidate Hovde calls the loss “painful,” but he won’t give up

    Online Niel Posted on

    play

    The same day he referred to his loss to Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin as “brutally tough and painful” and “a gut-wrenching punch to the solar plexus” in a radio interview, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Eric Hovde also posted a video in which he leaves open the possibility of requesting a recount.

    “The lucky thing about me is that I’ve been blessed with a lot of energy and very thick skin and I’m a very resilient person,” Hovde said Tuesday on WISN-AM (1130), adding that he “will continue to fight for our great country and state .”

    “So, yes, it’s the most painful loss I’ve ever experienced,” he said.

    Hovde appeared on conservative talk show host Mark Belling’s show with guest host Jessica McBride after releasing a nearly 5-minute film. videoposted on X, which included a series of misleading comments about the Milwaukee and Wisconsin election boards.

    He did not grant the election to Baldwin.

    The Milwaukee Election Commission said in a statement that it “unequivocally rejects Eric Hovde’s baseless claims about the integrity of our election process.”

    “(The Election Commission) celebrates the dedication of Milwaukeeans to participate in the democratic process and is fully confident that Mr. Hovde’s allegations have no merit,” the commission said in the statement. “Milwaukee voters can rest assured: (The Election Commission) has conducted fair, accurate and secure elections that fully protect voters’ rights and uphold the democratic process.”

    Baldwin beat Hovde by nearly 29,000 votes, the Associated Press said

    With 99 percent of the state’s votes counted, Baldwin led Hovde 49.4 percent to 48.5 percent—a margin of 28,958 votes—in a race that drew national attention and massive spending. Baldwin declared victoryand the Associated Press called the race for her the day after the election.

    On Tuesday, Hovde said: “Once the final information is available and all options are reviewed, I will announce my decision on how I will proceed.”

    “As a candidate, Eric Hovde has the right to request a recount and seek remedies to address any concerns he may have about the election,” said Republican Party of Wisconsin Executive Director Andrew Iverson , in a statement.

    A Republican official told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel John Eastman, one of the architects of former President Donald Trump’s strategy of a overturn the 2020 election, and Wisconsin political operative Nathan Trueblood advised Hovde on his decisions. Other Republican sources disputed that Trueblood was involved.

    On Wednesday, Eastman also denied any involvement.

    “This statement is false because I do not advise Mr. Hovde or anyone associated with him, or anyone else, on election matters in Wisconsin,” he said in an email.

    Baldwin’s campaign criticized Hovde for his comments.

    “Eric Hovde stooped as low as a politician can: He cast doubt on our very democracy,” said Baldwin campaign spokesman Andrew Mamo.

    “Leaders on both sides of the aisle should condemn the lies he is spreading and the pathetic campaign he continues to run. Tammy Baldwin won this race and Eric Hovde has only one thing to do: give in.”

    In Wisconsin, candidates who lose by less than one percentage point can request a recount

    In Wisconsin, a candidate can request a recount if the official count shows the candidate losing by 1 percentage point or less. If a candidate were behind by less than a quarter of a point, the state would pay for the recount. If the candidate is behind by a quarter point to 1 point, the campaign would have to pay several million dollars to cover the cost of the recount.

    In statewide elections, a candidate must wait until all Wisconsin counties have finished certifying results to request a recount.

    By November 19, two weeks after Election Day, each county board must certify its general election results and submit them to the Wisconsin Elections Commission.

    The deadline for requesting a recount is 5:00 p.m. on the third working day after the Electoral Commission receives the last report of results from the county canvassers, according to the commission’s recount. manual.

    Hovde was “shocked” by the timing of absentee ballot results in Milwaukee

    Hovde said in his video that he was “shocked” by Milwaukee’s reporting of absentee ballot results early Wednesday morning, despite widespread knowledge that the state’s most populous city they consistently report their absentee ballots all at once in the early morning after major elections like last week.

    And following the city’s decision, another delay was expected restart the count after more than 30,000 ballots have already been tabulated. That decision — which the city’s top elections official said was made out of an “abundance of caution” and in consultation with Democrats and Republicans — prompted Republican Sen. Ron Johnson and Wisconsin Republican Party Chairman Brian Schimming , to come personally to the absentee in the city center. the ballot counting operation in the afternoon of November 5.

    “Like many of my supporters, I was shocked by what happened on election night,” Hovde said in the video. “At 1 o’clock in the morning, I was getting congratulatory calls, and based on the models, it looked like I was going to win the Senate race.”

    Then, hours later, he said, the results of the city’s 108,325 ballots were added to the city’s totals from its polling stations.

    Under Wisconsin law, absentee ballots cannot be processed before 7 a.m. on Election Day. The Republican-controlled state Senate earlier this year let a bipartisan bill die which would have made it possible for clerks to start processing — and finish counting — absentee ballots earlier.

    That means that, especially in high-turnout elections like those for president, the city’s absentee ballot results are often reported late at night because of the large numbers that need to be counted.

    The volume of ballots in this heavily Democratic city means those votes can change the course of statewide elections when added to the total, often late at night.

    “Every aspect of (the Milwaukee Election Commission’s) operations was conducted with transparency and in strict compliance with established laws and procedures,” the Election Commission said in the statement. “It is both expected and common for absentee ballots — over 100,000 in this case — to be counted and reported late on Election Night because of Wisconsin’s high voter turnout and rigorous verification standards on which MEC supports”.

    Hovde claims Milwaukee’s absentee ballots went 90 percent to Baldwin. The actual number is 82%.

    Hovde also tried to cast doubt on Milwaukee’s absentee ballot results, saying Baldwin received 90 percent of those votes.

    “Statistically, this result seems improbable because it didn’t match the same-day voting patterns in Milwaukee, where we got 22 percent of the vote,” he said.

    In reality, Baldwin received 82% of absentee ballots to Hovde’s 16% – not far from Baldwin’s 75% of the vote on Election Day compared to Hovde’s nearly 22%.

    Hovde offers an alternative explanation for his loss – a spoiler candidate

    Hovde accused Democrats of funding a “bogus America First candidate named Thomas Leager … to deceive voters that this candidate was aligned with President Trump in order to get my votes.”

    Leager is a former lobbyist for Wisconsin Gun Owners Inc. and said that people call some of his ideas “extreme. He also claimed he was an unindicted co-conspirator in the the failed plot to kidnap the governor of Michigan. Gretchen Whitmer in 2020 with the hope of overthrowing the state government. The scheme received widespread attention as an example of domestic terrorism.

    When he ran for the Senate, he was very critical of Baldwin and the Democrats.

    “Everything I stand for is the complete opposite of Tammy Baldwin,” Leager told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

    (This story has been updated with additional information.)

    Online Niel
    View all posts

    You Might Also Like