The Republican candidates most loyal to former President Donald Trump will face off against incumbent Democrats trying to retain their seats in Washington.
Retired Army Brig. Gen. Donald Bolduc will face potentially vulnerable Democratic incumbent Maggie Hassan in November – setting up another test of whether a fierce conservative can appeal to more moderate general election voters.
Bolduc has said he believes Trump won the 2020 election and has espoused conspiracy theories about vaccines. The former president never endorsed Bolduc, but called him a “strong guy, tough guy.”
That has some in Bolduc’s own party questioning whether he can broaden his appeal beyond the GOP base in November enough to beat Hassan in a race that could help determine Senate control.
Similar themes played out in New Hampshire’s two Congressional Districts as pro-Trump Bob Burns won the Republican nomination to face five-term incumbent Democratic Rep. Annie Kuster and KarolineLeavitt, who worked in the Trump White House’s press office, will take on Rep. Chris Pappas. Leavitt topped chief rival Matt Mowers, a more experienced Republican with ties to the former president.
Leavitt said she was “sending a strong and clear message to the Washington, D.C., establishment, and our Democratic opponent that our votes cannot be bought, our conservative voices cannot be silenced.”
Pappas wasted little time going on the offensive against Leavitt, saying, “I will fight with everything I’ve got to stop extreme politicians like Karoline from hijacking our democracy.”
But as it turns out, these are the candidates the Democrats actually helped to win.
In the days leading up to the election, the Senate Majority PAC, which supports Democrats, ran ads calling moderate State Senate President Chuck Morse a “sleazy politician” and tied his campaign to lobbyists, which ultimately helped Bolduc.
Earlier in the election cycle, Democrats Serve PAC, spent nearly $100,000 to run cable TV ads to boost the conservative credentials of Republican candidate Bob Burns, who touted his pro-Trump and anti-abortion stances during his second bid for Congress. Democrats viewed him as a weaker general election candidate against Kuster than moderate Republican Keene Mayor George Hansel, who enjoys the backing of Gov. Chris Sununu.
Former Vice President Mike Pence was on his way to New Hampshire to participate in a fundraiser for Bolduc on Wednesday. Democrats were quick to call both Pence and Bolduc “anti-choice extremists,” who want a nationwide abortion ban.
Bolduc’s victory was another setback for Sununu, who endorsed Morse, a mainstream Republican. Sununu called Morse “the candidate to beat Sen. Hassan this November and the candidate Sen. Hassan is most afraid to face.”
By contrast, Sununu called Bolduc a conspiracy theorist and suggested he would have a tougher time in the general election. Bolduc wasn’t bothered by Sununu’s criticism, calling the governor “a Chinese communist sympathizer.”
Bolduc had campaigned longer than the other candidates in the race and narrowly beat Morse by a few thousand votes, which amounted to a margin of about 1%.
“Our campaign overcame the odds and millions of dollars in spending from outside special interest groups because we built a true bottom-up grassroots campaign,” Bolduc tweeted Wednesday morning. “Throughout the primary, I have felt the concerns of the voters, and heard time and again we need to send an outsider to Washington.”