Dan Bolduc, a retired Army brigadier general and election denier who embraces Trump’s approach to politics, led state Senate President Chuck Morse early Wednesday. If he wins the race, he’ll join a slate of candidates national Republicans can’t appeal to November voters.
The stakes are high, with the Senate split 50-50 and Republican candidates in Arizona, Georgia, Ohio and Pennsylvania also battling it out. The GOP expected New Hampshire, which Hassan won by just 1,000 votes six years ago, to be added to the list of battleground states in November.
Meanwhile, the fields were set for two of New England’s most competitive House races on Tuesday — including one in New Hampshire, where a Trump White House aide who admitted his lies about election fraud defeated an establishment-backed candidate. Further complicating the GOP’s efforts to win control of the House.
The results of the New Hampshire Senate primary are not yet known
Morse is backed by Republicans, including moderate Gov. Chris Sununu, and boosted by a super PAC affiliated with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, which has pumped more than $4 million into the race in an effort to prevent Bolduc from winning the primary.
Bolduc is closely aligned with former President Donald Trump. He said he “agrees with Trump’s assessment” of the 2020 election — namely, Trump’s lie that President Joe Biden’s victory was the result of widespread fraud.
“I signed a letter along with 120 other generals and admirals saying, ‘Oh, I stand by,'” Bolduc said in the August primary debate.
Bolduc tried to include the Republican governor Sununu in the national race as “a Chinese Communist sympathizer.” He raised the possibility of abolishing the FBI, saying he would repeal the 17th Amendment to the US Constitution, which requires states to directly elect their senators.
Trump is missing in New Hampshire’s primary. His decision not to endorse either candidate is a departure from Trump’s approach to most Senate primaries this year.
Hassan won by just 1,000 votes in 2016, and Republicans see New Hampshire as an opportunity to win control of a Senate that is evenly split between 50 Democrats and 50 Republicans.
Trump’s style evokes his substance in New Hampshire
Mirroring Trump’s brash style and parroting his electoral disapproval again proved more powerful than embracing the policy substance of his tenure in the White House at the Republican primary.
Movers fully embraced aspects of Trump’s tenure. His website was filled with positions that defined the former president, and Mowers attributed the fact that Trump endorsed him in his failed bid to win the seat in 2020.
Rhetorically and stylistically, the two differed dramatically.
Leavitt said he believes the 2020 election was “undoubtedly stolen from President Trump” where movers had “confidence in the New Hampshire elections.” Where Mowers recommended hearings to determine whether President Joe Biden should be impeached, Leavitt said there was no doubt the president should be impeached. When asked about the newly released coronavirus vaccine, where Mowers said it was “supporting the science”, Leavitt said it was “none of your business”.
The movers’ control effectively opened the door for someone like Leavitt to win over Republican primary voters in New Hampshire, many of whom still support the former president.
As polls showed Leavitt surging in the final days, outside groups like the Congressional Leadership Fund and Defending Main Street, joined by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, spent millions on ads to help movers fend off a challenge from the right. But the money isn’t big — and now Republicans are saddled with a more complicated candidate in the race against one of the nation’s most vulnerable Democrats, Rep. Chris Pappas.
Rhode Island contest selects candidates in House race
Fung was the Republican candidate for governor in 2014 and 2018, losing twice to former Gov. Gina Raimondo, but did well in the district that covers the western part of the state.
The journalist defeated Sarah Morgenthau, director of Peace Corps Response under former President Barack Obama; David Segal, who once served in the state legislature and ran an unsuccessful congressional race in 2010; and Joy Fox, who served as director of communications for Langevin and Raimondo.
McGee hangs in Rhode Island
But McGee, who took over as governor last year when he left the job to join the administration of Raymond Biden, is no stranger to tough primaries — he nearly lost a renomination bid as lieutenant governor in 2018.
Ultimately, despite being weighed down by a federal investigation into the awarding of a controversial state contract to a company with ties to an old associate — an episode in which McGee denies any wrongdoing — he emerged from a packed field. , benefiting from a split between anti-incumbency votes.
His closest rivals, former CVS executive Helena Foulkes and Secretary of State Nellie Corbia, ran as reformers with promises to clean up government. Foulkes has been endorsed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has vowed not to run for re-election if she doesn’t revitalize Rhode Island schools.
The race was a bust for progressive favorite Matt Brown, a Bernie Sanders-endorsed former secretary of state who trailed the leaders four years after losing a primary challenge to Raimondo.
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