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| Photo Credit: AP. |
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — New Hampshire Republicans on Tuesday were picking their party’s candidate to challenge incumbent Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan in a key midterm contest the GOP has long seen as winnable and which could ultimately decide control of the chamber after November.
But a strong
competitor in the GOP contest, which is capping primary season nationwide, is
retired Army Brig. Gen. Donald Bolduc, a staunch conservative who Democrats —
and even some top Republicans — believe is too far to the right for some swing
voters in the general election. President Joe Biden carried New Hampshire by
more than 7 percentage points, Bolduc has campaigned on a platform that
includes lies that Donald Trump won the 2020 election and conspiracy theories
about vaccines.
A Bolduc
victory might reignite disappointment among some national Republicans that Gov.
Chris Sununu, a relatively popular moderate who likely could have posed more of
a threat to Hassan, chose instead to run for reelection. The GOP is grappling
with the possibility of again nominating a candidate who is popular with the
party’s base but struggles to broaden support ahead of the November general
election.
Republican
primary voters have similarly chosen conservative candidates this year in
moderate or Democratic-leaning states including Massachusetts and Maryland,
potentially putting competitive races out of the party’s reach.
Neil
Levesque, director of the New Hampshire Institute of Politics, said Bolduc is a
type of candidate who would have struggled to succeed in GOP politics before
Trump’s rise. He’s never held elected office and had just $75,000 in cash on
hand last week. Still, Bolduc has been able to make inroads by positioning
himself as an ally of Trump and his election falsehoods.
“That is
because the theme of his campaign and messaging is very similar to former
President Trump,” Levesque said. “If it mirrors the former president, it’s been
effective.”
Federal and
state officials and Trump’s own attorney general have said there is no credible
evidence the election was tainted. The former president’s allegations of fraud
were also roundly rejected by courts, including by judges Trump appointed.
Known for
kicking off the primary season during presidential campaigns, New Hampshire is
instead concluding the nominating process for this year’s midterms. There are
also primaries Tuesday in Rhode Island and Delaware, where President Joe Biden
traveled late Tuesday to cast his ballot.
But New
Hampshire’s Senate race is perhaps most revealing about the direction of the
GOP. Bolduc is competing in a crowded field that includes Chuck Morse, the more
moderate president of the New Hampshire state Senate, who has been endorsed by
Sununu. The governor called Morse “the candidate to beat Sen. Hassan this
November and the candidate Sen. Hassan is most afraid to face.”
Sununu feels
differently about Bolduc, whom he’s called a conspiracy theorist while warning
that Bolduc could have a harder time winning the general election.
Bolduc
doesn’t seem bothered by Sununu’s criticism. He’s called the governor “a
Chinese communist sympathizer.” Bolduc hasn’t been formally endorsed by Trump,
who propelled many primary candidates to victory in key races throughout the
summer. But the former president has called Bolduc a “strong guy.”
The final
primary contests are unfolding at a dramatic moment in the midterm campaign.
Republicans have spent much of the year building their election-year message
around Biden and his management of the economy, particularly soaring prices.
But Democrats are now entering the final stretch with a sense of cautious
optimism as approval of Biden steadies and inflation has slowed for the second
straight month, even as it remains high.
The Supreme
Court’s decision overturning a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion may
provide Democrats with the energy they need to turn back the defeats that
historically accompany a new president’s first midterms.
Senate
Republican leader Mitch McConnell acknowledged the challenge last month, saying
his party may be more likely to end Democrats’ narrow control of the House than
the Senate. He bemoaned “candidate quality” as a factor that could sway some
outcomes in his chamber.
Some
Democratic groups, meanwhile, have sponsored primary ads promoting Bolduc,
predicting he’ll make an easier November opponent for Hassan. That’s consistent
with Democratic-aligned organizations backing pro-Trump candidates in key races
around the country — a strategy some have criticized, arguing that it could
backfire if those candidates go on to win their general elections.
Republicans
in New Hampshire and around the country scoff at the notion that being a Trump
loyalist — or not — could be a deciding general election factor, noting that
the still unpopular Biden will be a drag on his party regardless.
The New
Hampshire Republican Party has tweeted that Hassan “votes with Joe Biden 96.4%
of the time.”
Many of the
same dynamics swirling around the former president are at work in New
Hampshire’s 2nd Congressional District, where pro-Trump candidate Bob Burns is
among several Republicans vying for the party’s nomination to face five-term
incumbent Democratic Rep. Annie Kuster.
In New
Hampshire’s other congressional district, which encompasses Manchester and the
southeastern part of the state, several Republicans are vying to challenge
Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas, who could also face a potentially close general
election reelection contest — once he learns who his opponent will be.
The GOP
field includes former TV broadcaster Gail Huff Brown, wife of Scott Brown, a
former U.S. senator from Massachusetts and ambassador to New Zealand during the
Trump administration. Also running is Matt Mowers, who won the district’s
congressional 2020 Republican nomination and was a Trump administration State
Department adviser.
But the
candidate closest to Trump may be Karoline Leavitt, who worked in his White
House’s press office and has also campaigned with Republican Texas Sen. Ted
Cruz.
“Her compass
always points to Trump,” said Dante Scala, a University of New Hampshire political
science professor. He added, in reference to the former president’s “Make
America Great Again” campaign slogan, “She, in a very kind of crisp, sharp,
confident way, will say the most MAGA thing that can be said in any situation.”
Weissert
reported from Washington.