Republican Eric Hovde Invested Millions In Companies That Outsourced Jobs From Wisconsin

As both a fund manager and an individual investor, Eric Hovde, the Republican Senate nominee in Wisconsin, put millions of dollars into three companies that shipped jobs out of Wisconsin in favor of cheaper locales.

Hovde, a co-founder and former CEO of the asset management firm Hovde Capital Advisors, is challenging Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D) in November. A win for him would help Republicans, who are in a strong position to flip several other Democratic seats, take control of the upper chamber.

In Hovde’s quest to win in a state where manufacturing jobs remain a critical, if greatly diminished, part of the economy, he has spoken wistfully about the flight of U.S. manufacturing jobs to foreign countries with cheaper labor and lower regulatory standards.

HuffPost obtained audio of Hovde’s remarks on the topic at a luncheon hosted by the Republican Women of Dane County in September 2023.

“Economically, over the last 20 years, real wages have fallen for most Americans. Middle class and working class are being hammered,” Hovde says in the audio clip. “Whole industries over the last 20 years have moved away to China, to India, to Mexico, all over the globe.”

But prior to entering politics, Hovde invested millions of dollars in firms that laid off hundreds of Wisconsin workers, moving production to Southern states with cheaper labor costs and, in one case, to Mexico.

At the end of 2008, Hovde Capital reported an investment of over $15.2 million in NCR Corp., which makes ATMs, according to a disclosure Hovde Capital made to the Securities and Exchange Commission at the time.

In January 2009, NCR announced it would close a manufacturing plant in Viroqua, Wisconsin, laying off 81 employees. The company moved production to Morristown, Tennessee, where manufacturing workers earn less, and offered laid-off Wisconsin workers the opportunity to apply for an indeterminate number of openings in the new plant, local media reported at the time.

At the end of the first quarter of 2009, Hovde Capital reported to the SEC that it still had nearly $9.8 million invested in the company.

Workers at the Viroqua plant and community leaders were devastated by the news of the closure. Larry Fanta, who was mayor of the 4,400-person city at the time, called the plant the “backbone of the city,” in an interview with the Vernon County Times.

“Obviously this is a tremendous blow — for the people who’ve worked there for a number of years and for the city in general,” Fanta said. “There’s probably not a person who lives in the city who doesn’t know somebody who works at NCR, or actually has a member of the family, a cousin, or some relative, working at the plant.”

Hovde Capital also invested in two manufacturing companies shortly after they’d laid off Wisconsin workers to outsource production jobs.

Hovde Capital reported a $4.5 million investment in Briggs & Stratton, a pressure washer and generator manufacturer, in the third quarter of 2010, according to its SEC disclosure form for that period.

A year earlier, Briggs & Stratton had significantly reduced its Wisconsin workforce. In July 2009, the company announced it would close two factories in Wisconsin, in Jefferson and Watertown. Briggs & Stratton planned to move the factories’ 530 production jobs to Georgia and Alabama. Less than half of the affected workers had the opportunity to apply for jobs at a Briggs & Stratton plant in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin.

“I’m not happy,” Watertown Mayor Ron Krueger told the Wisconsin State Journal at the time. “It’s a blow to the entire county.”

And though Briggs & Stratton did not ship the jobs to a production facility overseas, some of the same forces driving offshoring spurred the company to close the plant: 39 of the workers displaced by the Jefferson plant closure were able to access Trade Adjustment Assistance benefits for workers negatively impacted by global trade. The federal government determined some of the layoffs were due to reduced demand for Briggs & Stratton products as a result of competition with foreign imports.

Finally, Hovde reported owning a stake in two hedge funds that invested in Polaris Industries, a snowmobile and off-road vehicle manufacturer, that shipped jobs out of Wisconsin.

As an unsuccessful candidate for the Republican Senate nomination in June 2012, Hovde reported owning two hedge funds, Financial Institution Partners III and Financial Institution Partners IV, each worth $1-5 million. Financial Institution Partners III generated $100,001-$1 million in investment income for Hovde, and Financial Institution Partners IV generated $15,001-$50,000.

Both funds had invested in Polaris Industries, though at the time of the disclosure, Hovde reported those investments as being worth $1,000 or less.

In May 2010, Polaris announced it would be shutting down its snowmobile factory in Osceola, Wisconsin, moving the plant’s 515 jobs to Iowa, Minnesota and Monterrey, Mexico. It later decided to keep 50 jobs in Osceola, for a total job loss of 465.

Residents of Osceola were deeply troubled by Polaris’s layoffs.

“It’s the people that are going to lose their homes, not be able to pay their rent ― that kind of thing,” local bar owner Steve Meyer told Minnesota Public Radio in May 2010. “What are they going to do? Unemployment doesn’t really take care of your livelihood. It is going to be tough on people, but everybody bounces back. Let’s hope they all do.”

Hovde’s campaign said his investments gave him no involvement in the three companies’ operations.

“These baseless attacks are ridiculous,” Hovde spokesperson Ben Voelkel said in a statement. “These were passive investments in publicly-traded companies and Hovde Capital had no operational involvement or control ― by that standard any American with a 401k retirement account is responsible for these same decisions.

“Sen. Baldwin and her Democrat allies hurt Wisconsin workers every day by supporting policies that increase inflation, raise taxes and make Wisconsin’s business climate worse,” Voelkel continued.

The Hovde campaign did not respond to questions about his views on trade and industrial policy.

Wisconsin Democrats nonetheless plan to use Hovde’s business and personal investing history against him. Hovde, who is worth between $195 and $565 million, has already faced attacks from Democrats for spending much of his time in recent years in Orange County, California — where Sunbank, which he currently chairs, has a large presence.

“It’s no surprise that a greedy California bank owner like Eric Hovde invested in companies that laid off Wisconsin workers,” Arik Wolk, a spokesperson for the Wisconsin Democratic Party, said in a statement. “Hovde has no respect for the hardworking people of Wisconsin, he only cares about helping himself get even wealthier.”

Baldwin, a former Madison-area House member who is seeking a third term in the Senate, has long emphasized her support for local manufacturing jobs.

Baldwin leads Hovde in virtually all available polling, though some surveys suggest the race is closer than others.

Baldwin also has a massive campaign fundraising advantage. As of late July, she had spent nearly $30 million with over $6 million left over, while Hovde had spent nearly $14 million with more than $3 million remaining.