Businessman and Republican U.S. Senate candidate, Eric Hovde speaks Tuesday April 2, 2024, at a former President Donald Trump rally in Green Bay, Wis. (AP Photo/Mike Roemer, File)

Wisconsin Senate candidate and anti-China hawk Eric Hovde is a frequent business collaborator with his brother Steven, who once tried to establish a chain of water parks in China.

According to a report from The Daily Beast, Steven Hovde founded Hovde China Ventures LLC before his brother’s first Senate run in 2012. This entity shut down four years later, and Eric says that he had nothing to do with the operation.

“Eric has not ever done business in China,” Hovde’s spokesman Ben Voelkel reportedly told The Daily Beast. “Nothing ended up coming of Steve’s investment interests.”

However, the Hovde brothers have frequently collaborated on business ventures, including a charity called Hovde Foundation, H Bancorp and Hovde Properties. Steven Hovde also donated $1 million to the Fix Washington PAC for his brother, which funded ads attacking Eric’s opponent Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D).

Despite running in Wisconsin, Eric Hovde also owns the Utah-based Sunwest Bank (which was sued for elder abuse in 2022) and a $7 million estate in an ultra-wealthy California suburb. Before Hovde announced his 2024 campaign, he also transferred a $2.3 million Washington D.C. home to Steven.