New Hampshire caps primaries with a fresh test of GOP’s future
CONCORD, N.H. — 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.
Hassan clinched her party’s nomination against only token opposition Tuesday, while Gov. Chris Sununu won the Republican party’s nomination for another term. He immediately becomes the favorite against Democrat Tom Sherman, who was unopposed for his party’s governor’s nomination.
“The stakes are too high this November to change direction now,” Sununu said in a statement.
A Bolduc victory might reignite disappointment among some national Republicans that 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 was instead concluding the nominating process for this year’s midterms. There were 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 was perhaps most revealing about the direction of the GOP. Bolduc was competing in a crowded field that included 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 were 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.