Meet the candidates running for US Senate and House in Wisconsin

In Wisconsin, one of the most closely watched battleground states in the upcoming Nov. 5 presidential election, voters will also cast ballots in a number of key races for control of the U.S. House and Senate.

The race between Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin and Republican multimillionaire Eric Hovde is seen as a must-win for Democrats to keep a majority in the Senate. The most recent polling from the Marquette University Law School shows that Baldwin has maintained a lead over Hovde among registered voters.

Wisconsin also has eight U.S. House seats up for election, but only two are seen as competitive. Wisconsin’s 1st Congressional District features a race between incumbent Republican Rep. Bryan Steil and Democrat Peter Barca, and Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District race puts first-term Republican Rep. Derrick Van Orden up against Democrat Rebecca Cooke.

Here’s what you should know about the candidates and where they stand on the issues.

U.S. Senate

Baldwin has served two terms in the Senate, first elected in 2012. She grew up in Madison and previously served on the Dane County Board of Supervisors and in the Wisconsin State Assembly before serving seven terms in Congress. She made history as the first woman from Wisconsin and the country’s first openly gay candidate elected to the U.S. Senate.

Hovde is a multimillionaire who also grew up in Madison. He’s CEO of the Madison-based real estate company Hovde Properties as well as of several banking companies on the West Coast. He ran for the Senate in 2012, but lost in the Republican primary.

Where exactly Hovde lives has been a point of dispute during the campaign. He owns homes in Madison and in Laguna Beach, California.

Baldwin is an outspoken supporter of reproductive rights. In the wake of the overturning of Roe v. Wade, she co-authored the Women’s Health Protection Act of 2023, which would provide federal protection for abortion access across the country.

Hovde favors restrictions on abortion, though he has slightly backtracked his stance on the issue. During his 2012 campaign, he said he was totally opposed to abortion, but after launching his 2024 bid for the Senate, he said he believes there should be exceptions to bans early on in a pregnancy in cases of rape and incest and to save the life of the pregnant person. He did not specify how early in pregnancy such exceptions would apply.

When it comes to the economy, Baldwin said she wants to hold big corporations accountable for rising costs. As a senator, she has supported the Inflation Reduction Act as well as legislation intended to tackle the affordable housing crisis and high child care costs.

Hovde has said he wants to scale back federal spending and unnecessary costs of producing goods and services. He also said that some of the green initiatives launched by the Biden administration, such as electric vehicles and renewable energy investments, should be rolled back.

1st Congressional District

In the southeast corner of the state, a Democrat is trying to flip Wisconsin’s 1st Congressional District, which has been represented by a Republican for 20 years.

Peter Barca is no stranger to the job, though. He held the position from 1993 to 1995 after winning a special election. Before and after that stint in Congress, Barca was a Wisconsin State Assembly member from 1985 to 1993 and again from 2009 to 2019. He was then appointed by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers to be the Department of Revenue secretary. He recently left that post to run for Congress. Barca grew up in Kenosha County.

Born and raised in Janesville, the incumbent Steil was first elected to Congress in 2018 after working as an attorney in the manufacturing industry. In 2016, he was appointed by former Republican Gov. Scott Walker to serve on the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents.

Both candidates have said they know the cost of living has been a problem for residents in the district. To solve that problem, Steil said he wants to eliminate “wasteful spending” and make America energy independent, while Barca said he wants to improve access to affordable child care and bring down costs for the middle class.

Steil is anti-abortion and called the overturning of Roe v. Wade a victory. Barca supports abortion access and said he would work to protect access to fertility treatments such as IVF if elected to Congress.

In the Aug. 13 primary, both Steil and Barca ran unopposed. Barca received about 8,000 more votes than Steil, showing how close the race may be come November.

3rd Congressional District

Democrat Rebecca Cooke is challenging Republican incumbent Rep. Derrick Van Orden to represent Wisconsin’s 3rd District, which covers much of western and part of central Wisconsin.

Van Orden, a former Navy SEAL, was born in Minnesota and currently lives in Prairie du Chien. He first ran for Congress in 2020, and his political career has been laden with controversies, including his presence at the rally in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2021 that preceded the insurrection by supporters of President Donald Trump at the U.S. Capitol and a pattern of angry outbursts.

Cooke is a small-business owner, a nonprofit leader and a waitress from Eau Claire, where she grew up on a dairy farm. She ran for Congress in 2022, but lost in the Democratic primary. She was appointed by Gov. Evers to the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation in 2019 and served until 2021.

Van Orden is against abortion and has said that laws regulating abortion access should be decided by the states. He also wants to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Cooke has promised to vote to codify the protections of Roe v. Wade in federal law if elected to Congress, and she wants to expand to more people health insurance coverage through Medicare and the ACA.

When it comes to the economy, Cooke supports a minimum wage increase, programs to support rural child care, clean energy investments and protections for workers’ rights. Van Orden said he wants to stop tax increases and make cuts to clean energy infrastructure programs.