Former President Donald Trump hasn’t campaigned alongside the Republicans running for Congress. And he didn’t endorse in the primary. He didn’t have to.
Don Bolduc, Karoline Leavitt, and Robert Burns made it onto the Nov. 8 ballot by embracing Trump or his views more loudly and proudly than their primary challengers. Leavitt and Burns continue to, defying campaign tradition that says general elections require moderating toward the middle, a better place to win over centrist Republicans and undecided voters.
Tradition may not apply here because all three have gotten the support of Gov. Chris Sununu, a popular Republican who thrives in the middle; a September poll from the UNH Survey Center showed independent voters favoring Sununu over Democratic challenger Tom Sherman 84 percent to 8 percent. He’s rarely embraced Trump and once even called him “(expletive) crazy,” yet has stayed off the former president’s bad side.
“It’s actually quite a fascinating dynamic to have Donald Trump and Chris Sununu, who I would argue represent very different perspectives in the Republican Party – or different approaches anyway – actually working sort of together,” said Wayne Lesperance, political science professor and interim president of New England College. “It’s unplanned, but it’s a complementary relationship for Republican candidates who had to tack very much to the right during the primary, and now are trying to find a credible way to the middle.”
Among the three Republican candidates, only Bolduc, who is challenging Sen. Maggie Hassan, has changed his message – several times. Ahead of the primary, Bolduc questioned the 2020 election results. Two days after the primary, he said he no longer thinks President Joe Biden stole the election. A few days after that he said he needed more information to be certain, and during a debate last week, Bolduc appeared open to the debunked claim that voters were being bused into the state. “It was such a transparent pivot,” said Christopher Galdieri, a political science professor at St. Anselm College. “I told my students this was a classic example of what people think politicians do all the time, which is saying one thing in August and then different things in September and hoping nobody notices.”
All three Republicans have earned their “pro-Trump” status differently.
Bolduc, 60, campaigns like Trump, as a populist outsider with a say-it-like-it-is style. Ahead of the primary, Trump lauded Bolduc as a “strong guy, tough guy” during a radio interview.
Leavitt, 25, who is challenging Rep. Chris Pappas in the 1st Congressional District, often notes that she worked in Trump’s press office, a job she held from July 2019 to January 2021. She’s questioned the 2020 election results, saying there was widespread “fraud and irregularities.” She has voiced support for “President Trump’s America-first agenda.” She shares his support for securing the border, limiting abortion, and “law and order” policies.
Burns, 44, seeking to unseat Rep. Annie Kuster in the 2nd Congressional District, includes in his bio that he served as chairperson of the National Youth Coalition for Trump, a position he held before the 2016 election. Ahead of the primary, Burns campaigned as the “only pro-Trump pro-life” candidate in the race. He quickly promoted Trump’s endorsement on his Twitter feed Oct. 25, and he has photos of himself with Trump on his campaign site. And like Leavitt, his policy positions align with Trump’s.
“I feel like all three of these candidates were so focused on their (primary) nominations, and you have to win a nomination to get to the general, I get that,” he said. “They never thought about, ‘OK, but what do I do when I’m facing an electorate that does not universally adore Donald Trump and that’s not entirely Republican?’”
That’s where Sununu comes in.
“Chris Sununu’s popularity among independents is…
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