Don Bolduc says when it comes to Republican unity after a very combustible primary, “it’s all coming together.”
Three and a half weeks after Bolduc captured the GOP Senate nomination in New Hampshire, the former Army brigadier general, who’s making his second straight bid for the U.S. Senate, says his campaign’s showcasing “a message of unity.”
Bolduc’s challenging former governor and first-term Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan in a race that’s one of a handful across the country that will likely determine if the GOP wins back the chamber’s majority in November’s midterm elections.
Bolduc, who ran in the primary as a populist MAGA Republican-style outsider, narrowly defeated longtime state Senate President Chuck Morse, a more mainstream conservative candidate who enjoyed the support of popular Republican Gov. Chris Sununu, in a crowded field of Republican contenders.
“It was a pretty rough primary. Now we just got to get the team moving in the right direction,” Bolduc recently told this reporter during a campaign stop in Londonderry.
While Hassan enjoys near universal support among Granite State Democrats, polls indicate Bolduc still has some work to do to unify Republicans.
According to a Saint Anselm College Survey Center poll conducted Sept. 27-28 and released earlier last week, Bolduc won the backing of 84% of self-described Republicans, while Hassan was supported by 93% of Democrats. Bolduc’s backing by GOP voters was basically unchanged from a University of New Hampshire Survey Center poll conducted in the days following the Sept. 13 primary.
But with a chance to knock off Hassan and retake the Senate majority, Republicans seem to be slowly embracing Bolduc.
“All eyes are on New Hampshire, right? Because the majority goes through New Hampshire,” Bolduc has said repeatedly on the campaign trail the past couple of weeks.
Veteran New Hampshire-based national Republican consultant Dave Carney, who advised the Morse campaign during the primary, told the Monitor that “I think the vast majority of the party – the operatives, activists, county committees, town committee members, Republican primary voters – are united in defeating Hassan.”
Carney emphasized that “this is a winnable race” and argued that “Hassan is weak tea.”
Longtime state Senate majority leader Jeb Bradley, a close Morse ally, told the Monitor that “Sen. Morse was very gracious in defeat. Embraced Gen. Bolduc right away. Gen. Bolduc was magnanimous in victory. I don’t get the sense that there’s significant division among Republicans.”
And he said he thought the divisive Senate primary “was put to bed and I think people are behind Bolduc.”
Bolduc made a high-profile gesture of unity at the New Hampshire GOP’s unity breakfast two days after the primary. After stressing at the end of his speech that “we do not win without this team coming together,” Bolduc then stepped down from the podium and approached Sununu, who was next in line to speak, and embraced the governor, who remains the most popular politician among Granite State Republicans.
The hug by Bolduc appeared to be an attempt to erase a recent history of bad blood and a war of words between the two men, who now share the top of the GOP ticket on November’s ballot in New Hampshire.
Asked if the governor will team up with Bolduc in the final stretch leading up to the election, Sununu spokesman Benjamin Vihstadt said “the governor supports the Republican ticket and expects their paths will continue to cross events while out on the campaign trail.”
Bolduc wasn’t the first choice for national Republicans. A group with links to longtime Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell spent seven-figures in the primary campaign supporting Morse.
But the McConnell-aligned Senate Leadership Fund, which is the top super PAC that supports Senate Republican incumbents and candidates, says it’s still planning on spending the $23 million it allocated to defeat…
Read More: Don Bolduc works to unify GOP voters in Senate race