Tammy Baldwin will face an anti-LGBTQ+ Republican who called being trans “insanity”

Out lesbian Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), who was the first out LGBTQ+ person elected to the U.S. Senate, is going to run against the Republican Senate nominee Eric Hovde, a banking executive, after the state’s GOP primary this week with over 86% of the vote.

Baldwin has served as a role model for LGBTQ+ politician hopefuls since she was first elected to the Senate in 2013. She’s paved the road with a solid record on LGBTQ+ issues – backing marriage equality, supporting transgender non-discrimination and many other policies.

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It’s a must-win state for the presidency, and Baldwin has already won statewide twice.

Hovde, on the other hand, comes from a different background. While he was born and raised in Wisconsin, he’s also spent a notable portion of time in California, given that he’s the CEO of H Bancorp and its subsidiary, Sunwest Bank, both of which are based in the Golden State.

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This has led to political ads running against him that portray him as an out-of-state executive trying to make decisions on behalf of Wisconsinites. Hovde has sought to combat this, emphasizing his roots in the Badger State and saying that he spends a substantial portion of his time in Wisconsin.

Hovde is running on a platform that’s anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-abortion. He previously tried to run for Senate unsuccessfully in 2012 and since has backed candidates who oppose Baldwin, including Leah Vukmir, who ran against Baldwin in 2018. Vukmir supported a constitutional amendmnet to ban same-sex couples from marrying.

Hovde aims to restrict gender-affirming care for minors and trans integration into sports that match their gender identity. He’s also said that being trans is “insanity.”

“We don’t allow our children to drive an automobile until they’re 16.… We don’t allow our young people to vote until 18. We don’t allow our young people to drink alcohol until 21. And yet we’re allowing children 11, 12, 13 … to be transgender. Do you realize the highest rate of suicide in our country today are young people that went through a transgender?” he said at an event.

Contrary to his claims, the high suicide rate of trans people is linked to discrimination and restricted access to gender-affirming care. There is no evidence that going “through a transgender” or any form of gender transition in itself causes suicidality. Also, gender-affirming care for young people generally involves reversible treatments like puberty blockers.

He also opposed Roe v. Wade and has called for the restriction of all pregnancies, with exceptions for rape, incest, and pregnancies that threaten the life of their parent.

Jared Todd, spokesperson for the Human Rights Campaign Equality Votes PAC, said in a statement, “Eric Hovde is an arrogant opportunist looking to grab at power and influence wherever he can find it for the sake of his own ego. He has shown time after time that he’s completely out-of-touch with Wisconsin voters.”

“Attacking transgender people, stripping Wisconsinites of their reproductive healthcare choices, and proposing nothing to make Wisconsinites better off is not a winning agenda. Wisconsinites, including the one million Equality Voters in the state, will reject Hovde’s bigoted elitism at the ballot box and re-elect Tammy Baldwin, a champion for Wisconsin families who puts their needs first.”

Baldwin was first elected to the Senate in 2013, where previously she was a member of the House of Representatives since 1999. Prior to that, she served as a state legislator for her home state of Wisconsin.

She’s an out lesbian, the first out LGBTQ+ person to be out on the campaign trail before her first term in office, and the first lesbian elected to both the House and the Senate. She is not, however, the first LGBTQ+ elected official in Congress – U.S. Reps. Barney Frank (D-MA) and Jim Kolbe (R-AZ) came before, as both came out while in office.

Baldwin ran unopposed in the Democratic primary this week.

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