With just under a month to go before the election, every poll consistently shows that California banker Eric "Pornstache" Hovde is trailing Senator Tammy Baldwin by five to seven points. Hovde is also catching a lot of flak for being a carpetbagger, having money stashed in the Cayman Islands and having dealings with an irreputable Mexican bank that deals with drug cartels. Needless to say, old Pornstache is feeling a bit desperate these days.

So, Hovde did what any Trump-loving, hate-filled Republican would do - he hoisted his Christian Nationalist freak flag fly!

He preyed on the fears of his base by drumming up their transphobic and homophobic bigotry.

Hovde started out by accusing Baldwin of asking for and getting funding for an agency which he accused of providing gender-affirming care without notifying the parents:

During a Sept. 16 appearance on the Vicki McKenna Show on 1310 WIBA, Hovde dogged Baldwin for a federal earmark she requested for a Madison-area organization that serves at-risk youth

In doing so, Hovde claimed, Baldwin “gave our taxpayer money to a transgender clinic, affirming clinic — which is their buzzword — that does it without even telling parents.”

When asked for proof, Hovde's campaign came up empty. Baldwin did get money for a youth group in Madison, but it was for their homeless teenager program. And while the agency did have a separate support group for LGBTQ youths, they didn't do it in secret or do any medical care.

And it is rather odd that Hovde would have a conniption about Baldwin helping homeless children since he bragged about doing the same thing for children in third world countries.

But Hovde wasn't done with that transphobic boogeyman just yet. He then came out with another lie about trans youths and suicides:

Eric Hovde, the Republican businessman challenging U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, claimed on a Wisconsin-based conservative radio talk show that transgender youths have the highest rate of suicide in the United States, a result of regretting their gender transition.

Scientific studies show that's false on both counts — the rate and the regret.

"The highest rate of suicide in our country (is) young people who went through a transition. They wake up and realize that this did not cure their underlying mental health problems, and now they're even more messed up and they commit suicide at the highest rate of any group in our society," Hovde told conservative radio host Joe Giganti on "The Regular Joe Show" last Thursday. The nationally syndicated show originates out of Green Bay.

However, in reality, the group with the highest rate of suicides is people over 85 years of age. The group with the fastest growing rate is men over 25, living in rural settings and have easy access to guns.

It should be noted that Hovde is not just transphobic, but also has a big hate on for homosexuals. In one of his recent commercials, he accuses Baldwin of undisclosed conflict of interests and corruption, of all things. The gist of his ad is that Baldwin regulates the biotech industry, while her partner is a financial advisor to people in the biotech industries. He then jumps that they share insider information and use it to get rich. But the real emphasis is that Baldwin and her partner are - GASP! - lesbians! Hovde went so far as to end his ad with this not-so-subtle tagline:

Hovde's gay-baiting came to the forefront during a recent interview. Before Baldwin could respond, Rep. Gwen Moore rained down righteous hellfire:

But U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore, a Milwaukee Democrat and a Baldwin ally, jumped in to say that Hovde and Republicans were not bringing up these issues because they care about some potential conflict of interest. Instead, Moore said she believes Hovde, a Madison banking and real estate mogul, and other Republicans are using the issue to try to remind voters that Baldwin is a lesbian.

"I think they just want to make sure everybody knows about her," Moore said, referring to Brisbane.

"That I have a girlfriend," Baldwin clarified.

"That's right," Moore added. "That she's LGBTQ — I think that's the whole point. To hear them say she's 'in bed (with Wall Street),' the whole point is about her personal life."

The anticipation of sending this pornstached asshole back to Laguna Beach will make the next four weeks in the hearts of many Wisconsinites.