Potential Wisconsin Senate candidate Eric Hovde once blamed ‘deplorable’ civic engagement on Hollywood and sports

During a 2016 interview on “The Jerry Bader Show,” Wisconsin banker and potential Republican U.S. Senate candidate Eric Hovde called most Americans “deplorable” and accused them of “not knowing what the heck is going on.”

“Most of the country, sadly, doesn’t know what the heck is going on,” Hovde. “They can’t even tell you when our country was founded, who the vice president [sic], how many senators there are. It’s just deplorable how low people are keeping themselves informed.”

In addition to evoking Hillary Clinton’s infamous comment, Hovde also criticized women for focusing too much on “Hollywood” and men for watching “too much” sports.

“I like to say, sadly, with females, they spend too much time with what’s going on in Hollywood. And with males, they engross themselves too much with sports. And now it’s not just sports, it’s fantasy sports.”

Hovde is a banking executive who ran for the U.S. Senate in 2012, where he lost in the Republican primary to former Gov. Tommy Thompson by just over 18,000 votes. Thompson lost to Tammy Baldwin (D) in the general election, who still holds the seat today and is running for reelection in 2024. At the time, Hovde also criticized the press for “writing sob stories about poor people,” a comment he also fundraised millions off of.

There is currently no true frontrunner on the Republican side to challenge Baldwin in 2024 as she seeks a third term. U.S. Rep. Mike Gallagher has announced his intentions to stay out of the race and focus on his work as the chairman of the Select Committee on China. Former Milwaukee Sheriff David Clarke has danced around the idea and even led in a recent Public Policy Poll over Gallagher and Hovde.

Recent reporting from Milwaukee Journal Sentinel brought up eligibility concerns for Hovde’s candidacy since he reportedly lives in Laguna Beach, Calif.