GOP challenger says lesbian Sen. Tammy Baldwin wants to "redefine the family" in closing argument

Jul 16, 2024; Milwaukee, WI, USA; Eric Hovde, Wisconsin U.S. Senate candidate delivers remarks during the second day of the Republican National Convention Photo: William Glasheen-USA TODAY

Republican candidate for Senate Eric Hovde’s campaign’s closing message has turned anti-LGBTQ+ in the final weeks of his campaign to unseat out Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), with the candidate repeatedly saying that Baldwin wants to “redefine the family” and that she doesn’t know what a woman is. The messaging could be an attempt to get voters to think about the sexuality of the first out LGBTQ+ person elected to the Senate.

At a meet and greet in Rhinelander, Wisconsin, Hovde said, “President Trump and I, what do we want to do? We want to protect the traditional family, support traditional values. What do Harris and Baldwin want to do? Just, yeah, they want to redefine the family. They can’t even agree what a woman is and a man is. You talk about insane.”

He repeated similar remarks at a meet and greet in Solon Springs, Wisconsin. At a similar event in Plover, he said accepting trans people was “crazy,” and at another event in Antigo, he referred to Harris and Baldwin as “nuts.”

At the Trump Unity Event on Friday, he appealed to his family and children, implying that Baldwin and Harris are against the traditional family and against children. Baldwin and her partner do not have children.

“What does President Trump want and Eric Hovde? To preserve the traditional family. I’m a family man. I’m a girl dad, two daughters and three grandchildren. What does Kamala Harris and Senator Baldwin… What do the two of them want? They want to redefine the family. Heck, they can’t even agree what a woman is versus what a guy is. It’s nuts.”

There is no evidence that either Harris nor Baldwin wants to “redefine the family.” Both candidates argue for support of LGBTQ+ individuals, allowing people to form the families they desire and be the person they desire without the government restricting them. The only definition of family that is damaged by this is one that excludes LGBTQ+ individuals.

At a meet and greet in Shawano, Wisconsin, Hovde said that Harris and Baldwin want to “Rip up the Constitution. They want liberal courts to write laws. They want to take away our right of free speech. Look what they did during COVID, with big tech and big media canceling speech, even to the point where a group of virologists and epidemiologists wrote something called the Great Barrington declaration, saying trying to shut down society during a pandemic will not work and will have devastating impacts.”

The Great Barrington Declaration was made in October 2020 and has been criticized by the World Health Organization and leading epidemiologists for being unscientific and dangerous in its advocacy against lockdowns and masking. The Declaration was sponsored by a climate change-denying libertarian think-tank, the American Institute for Economic Research, and was not an independent scientific document.

Hovde continued, “And they attacked them, called them climate deniers and had nothing to do with the climate, that’s what they did. And they want to take away our right to bear arms. So again, totally different visions of what we want. What do President Trump and I want? We want to preserve the family. I’m a family man. You know, most important thing in my life, it’s God, family and country. You know, preserve and strengthen the family. They want to remake the family. And by the way, they can’t even agree what a woman is and what a guy is! I mean, it’s nuts. It’s nuts where they are.”

Hovde echoed these remarks in an interview with Ted Nugent last Wednesday, where he said, “They’re destroying our country at every single level. I mean, they’re attacking our Constitution. They want to take us down a socialist path instead of our free market system. They want to change and destroy family values.”

Hovde also appeared in an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity this week, where Hannity referred to Baldwin as a “radical terrorist Biden supporter.” Hovde echoed the lines he’s been repeating at events and claimed that Baldwin wants to “rip up the Constitution” and “rename our families.”

Hovde is running on a far-right platform, including radically opposing abortion, heavily restricting immigration, and attacking LGBTQ+ individuals. Most recently, he was endorsed by the Campaign for Working Families, a far-right anti-abortion group that believes life begins at fertilization, a belief used to justify opposition to abortion in all cases as well as in vitro fertilization, a fertility treatment that necessarily results in the creation of fertilized embryos that may never develop into living human beings. The group also equates abortion to child sacrifice and claims abortions are “baby pesticides.”

The Hovde campaign did not respond to a request for comment regarding Hovde’s prior statements on the “traditional family,” nor did they respond to an ask of whether Hovde stands by the Campaign for Working Families endorsement.

Arik Wolk, Democratic Party of Wisconsin spokesperson, told LGBTQ Nation of Hovde: “Eric Hovde has run one of the most divisive and dark campaigns in recent history. From insulting every Wisconsinite young and old, to now attacking Tammy Baldwin for her sexuality, Hovde is a desperate candidate trying to distract from his own out-of-touch agenda to ban abortion, roll back our health care, and cut Seniors’ benefits.”

Hovde’s campaign and supporting PACs have been running ads in Wisconsin accusing Baldwin of supporting gender-affirming surgery for minors and pushing an “LGBTQ agenda on kids.” LGBTQ Nation rated those claims false in a fact check.

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