His campaign received some funding from Democratic donors in what Hovde said was an effort to siphon votes from him. While it's a tactic that the GOP has also used to prop up candidates on the opponents' left flank,

On the same day he referred to his loss to Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin as "brutally hard and painful" and a "gut-wrenching punch to the solar plexus" in a radio interview, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Eric Hovde also posted a video leaving open the possibility of requesting a recount.