DE PERE (NBC 26) — Republican U.S. Senate candidate Eric Hovde visited a De Pere manufacturer Friday morning and answered NBC 26's questions regarding abortion and the Farm Bill.
- Watch Eric Hovde visit a manufacturer in De Pere Friday morning.
- Hovde spoke with employees at Amerilux in a town hall style Q and A, and that conversation was not allowed to be filmed.
- Hovde then made his way to Oregon, Wisconsin for a Trump Unity event.
(The following is a transcription of the full broadcast story.)
Eric Hovde visited plastic sheet manufacturing company Amerilux in De Pere on Friday.
NBC 26 reporter Pari Apostolakos asked the Republican Senate candidate about his thoughts on the 2023 Farm Bill. Last week, while debating incumbent Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin, he said he wasn't familiar with the bill.
"I don't think Sen. Baldwin could sit here and talk much about the details in the Farm Bill, because it's 1,000 page[s] of a lot of corporate welfare," Hovde said Friday. "Only about 20% of the farm bill is for farmers."
"I believe farm bills should get back for being for farmers," Hovde said.
On abortion, Hovde said at the debate he believes in exceptions for rape, incest and the health of the mother. He also said women should have a right to decide early on in their pregnancy. When asked what he meant by "early," he pointed to countries like France, which allows for abortion around the end of the first or the beginning of the second trimester.
"I believe the voters of Wisconsin should decide this," the senate hopeful said. "It's not going to be decided in Washington D.C."
In response to Hovde's visit, the Democratic Party of Brown County sent NBC 26 a statement.
"As Eric Hovde tries to clean up from his debate loss last week where he admitted he doesn't know about the Farm Bill, momentum is on Tammy Baldwin's side," a spokesperson for the Democratic Party of Wisconsin wrote. "Maybe today will be the day Eric Hovde finally learns what the farm bill is."
After his stop in De Pere, Hovde made his way to a Trump Unity event with Tulsi Gabbard at a farm in Oregon, Wisconsin.
