Eric Hovde, the leading Republican candidate for Senate in Wisconsin, released an ad that features executives from his business without disclosure. 

The ad features three people sitting at a bar discussing numerous Democratic policies they take issue with. Hovde is running to unseat Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), a two-term senator, this November.

The video, called “Crazy Spending,” shows two vice presidents and a director from Hovde Properties seated in a bar, according to Milwaukee’s NBC affiliate TMJ 4 News. The men are not identified at any point and are depicted as typical Wisconsin voters. 

“Now, I suppose if you’re Eric Hovde, you can say, ‘It’s me and my co-workers getting a beer after work, and I’m bringing them beer, and what’s peculiar about that?’ But I think it’s a little bit deceptive to make it appear as though these are regular folks and not employees,” said Mike Wagner, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Wagner said while it is not uncommon for political advertisements to use paid actors, this is usually disclosed in the fine print of the video. In this video, the three men were not identified or disclosed. 

“I can’t think of an example where three people who are kind of higher-ups in a candidate’s company are featured as regular people shooting the breeze about the campaign,” Wagner said.

In the first quarter of 2024, Hovde outraised Baldwin by more than $3 million. Hovde has faced criticism for having strong business ties to Southern California, among other comments he has made. 

“The only Wisconsinites who support Eric Hovde are the ones on his payroll. Maybe if Hovde stopped insulting Wisconsinites so much and actually spent time in Wisconsin instead of in his megamansion in Laguna Beach, California, he could actually find some Wisconsinites not on his payroll to be in his ad,” Arik Wolk, rapid response director for the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, told the Washington Examiner. 

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“Sen. Baldwin is so desperate to talk about anything other than her record of voting with Joe Biden 95.5% of the time that she wants to talk about who is in ads rather than the issues they are justifiably concerned about,” Hovde campaign spokesman Zach Bannon said in a statement to TMJ 4, adding that those in the video were not paid actors and were “Wisconsin voters.”

Hovde’s campaign did not respond to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment.