MADISON, Wis. (WFRV) - Tuesday night, Republican senate candidate Eric Hovde hopes to win his first election, ousting Sen. Tammy Baldwin's (D-WI) 12-year-hold on the seat. It is one of a handful of close races that could flip the Senate majority to red. “I’m in this to win. I don’t get into things without planning to win,” Hovde told Local 5 in August for the Behind the Ballot: U.S. Senate Race special. “So I’m running from morning to night, meeting and talking to the people of Wisconsin. I feel this is a very winnable race and feel very good about where the campaign’s going. So my plan is I’m winning this race.” Hovde is a businessman and real estate developer, leading a California bank with properties across Wisconsin. Despite ads from his opponent, he says he lives in Wisconsin for most of the year and is fully invested in the state. “I live in Wisconsin, I pay property tax in Wisconsin, I own properties all over the state of Wisconsin, I’m building a big apartment complex in Racine right now and am starting another project in Janesville,” he said. “I’m a fourth-generation Wisconsinite.” Hovde’s first attempt at politics was in 2012, when he lost the Republican primary race for the Senate. “So I ran, came close in the primary, lost to Gov. Thompson. And I thought I was done with politics,” he said. “My wife and I were on to a very nice life and enjoying our family and building my companies. But what has unfolded in the last three and a half years, I just shake my head in disbelief. As I say, I feel like I’ve woken up into Alice in Wonderland, what is right is wrong, what is wrong is right, everything is mixed up.” Hovde says the top issue affecting Wisconsinites is the high cost of living, and he would like the government to pull back spending to control inflation. “It stems from all the excessive spending that Washington has been doing. We increased federal spending during the COVID lockdowns by 40%. And then when we unlocked the economy and people went back to work, we kept the spending up. Well, our country’s population did not grow by 40%, but they kept spending a couple trillion dollars more than we were bringing in. So we’ve created a massive budget deficit.” “We have to pull the spending back to where it was before COVID started and live within our means. Because when you spend that much money, the Federal Reserve, the bank for the federal government, has to buy all that debt, and they create more money, which creates inflation—too much money chasing the same amounts of goods and services. So we’ve got to fix that part. But then we also have to deal with the excessive regulations—we’ve put so many regulations, be it EV mandates, just regulations across the board.” Hovde was diagnosed with MS in 1991 and understands how high drug prices can impact patients. “I understand the complications of having a disease and how scary that is, and I’ve seen drug prices just skyrocket,” he said. “The medications I began taking over 30 years ago—I mean, I’ve seen those prices go up literally 700-800%, the same drug. It’s insane.” On abortion, Hovde is clear that he does not support a ban and hopes Wisconsinites can find common ground through a referendum. “I’ve been very clear from the time I’ve gotten into this race and even before. Look, this has been put back to the people of Wisconsin. I think it should be decided through a referendum where every voter in the state of Wisconsin should have a right to vote on this issue. And hopefully, I believe the people of Wisconsin will find a common-sense and compassionate approach.” Local 5 News will provide real-time updates on this article for all developments regarding Eric Hovde.