MADISON, Wis. (Civic Media) – Eric Hovde announced he will run for the U.S. Senate, according to a video released by his campaign.

Hovde is the highest-profile Republican challenger to incumbent Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin.

“Everything is going in the wrong direction,” Hovde said in his campaign launch video. “All Washington does is divide us and talk about who’s to blame and nothing gets done.”

Hovde is making his second bid for the Senate in Wisconsin. He ran and lost in a Republican primary in 2012 to former governor Tommy Thompson. Thompson then lost to Baldwin in the 2012 General Election, giving Baldwin her first term in the Senate.

On his campaign website, Hovde said he’s running to restore “the American Dream.”

“The economic path we’ve been on and the corruption that has been running rampant in Washington DC for the last 15 years, coupled with the disastrous last four years under Joe Biden’s administration… I don’t recognize my country anymore,” Hovde said.

I'm running for the U.S. Senate because I'm tired of constant division and finger pointing by politicians.

It's time to send a fighter to Washington who will work to find common ground and restore the American Dream.

Join me: https://t.co/K21p8GDA11 pic.twitter.com/IB0dwgSZe8

— Eric Hovde (@EricHovde) February 20, 2024

Hovde, a real estate company owner and bank CEO, is the first prominent Republican to announce a run. Congressmen Tom Tiffany and Mike Gallagher had previously announced they wouldn’t be running.

Other Republican candidates could include Scott Mayer, a business owner in Franklin, and David Clarke, the former sheriff of Milwaukee County. So far, four Republicans have announced that they are running,: Kyle Corrigan, Stacey Klein, Rejani Raveendran, and Patrick Schaefer-Wicke. A trio of third-party candidates have also declared for the race.

The Democratic Party of Wisconsin said in a statement that Hovde’s candidacy will be part of a “messy GOP primary.”

Hovde’s decision to run was confirmed last week by his campaign.