One missing factor: former president Donald Trump, who through Sunday had not made an endorsement in any of the three most closely watched contests. His absence had left the candidates to make their own sales pitches to his supporters, blurring some of the ideological battle lines.
While President Biden won New Hampshire by seven points, the competitive primaries have been influenced by the right, with Republicans venting about GOP congressional leaders, restrictions imposed during the pandemic and the vote count in the 2020 election.
The Republican primary for U.S. Senate is seen as a significant factor in the larger battle for control of the upper chamber next year. The race includes retired U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Don Bolduc, who has said that he “concurred with Trump’s assessment” of the election, meaning his false claims that he was the winner, and co-signed a letter raising questions about the vote. Bolduc has also endorsed closing the Department of Education, and he asked whether America should “get rid of” the FBI in the wake of last month’s search of Mar-a-Lago.
“I have taken the arrows from my fellow Republican candidates, and I’m standing strong,” Bolduc told supporters at a Saturday afternoon town hall here. “When God made Bolducs, he made oak trees, not willow trees!”
New Hampshire Senate President Chuck Morse (R) is opposing Bolduc. Morse is supported by Republican Gov. Chris Sununu, who has called Bolduc a “conspiracy theorist.” At a campaign stop in Rochester, Morse defended the integrity of the 2020 election in the state, but he did not oppose the effort by most House Republicans, and some Senate Republicans, to challenge Biden’s electoral votes from Arizona and Pennsylvania.
“In these other states where we were hearing things — this comes down to people going in and looking at it and getting things done,” Morse said. “I’m not against the legislature doing that.”
A University of New Hampshire Survey Center poll conducted late last month showed Bolduc leading Morse 43 percent to 22 percent in the Republican primary, with other candidates in the single digits.
National Republicans tried and failed last year to convince Sununu to run against Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan; after he declined, he urged the 61-year-old Morse to run, according to both men. Last week, when Trump called Sununu about the race, the governor said that he made a pitch for Morse, and Morse met with Trump to discuss a possible endorsement.
“I answered his questions, and he told me what he believed,” Morse said in an interview after touring local businesses in Rochester. “He certainly has some strong opinions.”
An outside group whose treasurer has past ties to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and the National Republican Senatorial Committee put $4.6 million behind ads to help Morse. That is three times as much as Morse himself has been able to raise for his campaign, worrying Republicans, who have watched Hassan raise more than $30 million and go on the air with early TV ads.
National Democrats, apparently wagering Bolduc would be easier for Hassan to defeat in November, have spent millions to boost Bolduc. Senate Majority PAC, a group aligned with Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer…
Read More: Primary season concludes with bitterly contested GOP races in New Hampshire
