New Hampshire Republicans Rally Behind Trumpy, Forced-Birth Creep Don Bolduc

Was this ever in doubt?

Polls have shown Democratic incumbent Maggie Hassan maintaining a solid lead in the New Hampshire Senate race. This could provide Republicans an opportunity to openly part company with their election-denying fascist candidate Don Bolduc, but while some big-money donors have discreetly pulled their support, the Republican mainstream has only further rallied behind Bolduc. They want to regain the Senate majority, and Bolduc hasn't paid for any abortions to our knowledge.

 The Washington Post reportsthat Bolduc has apparently “pivoted" for the general election. That's a generous term for "lying about his past extremist positions," which aren't even past. He obviously still has them. Last week,Bolduc said that decisions about abortion belong "to the state," specifically the fine "gentlemen representing you in the state legislature." (There are in fact women in the state legislature.)

BOLDUC: That's the best way that I as a man think women get the best voice.

Puke.

“New Hampshire Republican Senate candidate Don Bolduc told supporters last week that abortion decisions “belong” to “gentlemen” in the state legislature. https: //t.co/BAIRFWtKRw”

— Judd Legum (@Judd Legum) 1665322669 

The Post claims “ the campaign is a test of whether concerns over inflation and the economy will overpower Granite State voters’ tendency to support more moderate, buttoned-up candidates of both parties for higher office," thus helping promote the right-wing narrative that Republicans are worth a damn on the economy. Anti-abortion extremism and Big Lies about elections won’t lower the price of food and gas.

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 Congrats On Your Trumpy Election-Denying GOP Senate Nominee, New Hampshire! 

 Trumpy NH GOP Senate Nominee Don Bolduc No Longer So Sure 2020 Election Stolen 

Democrats aren’t some luxury item voters can only afford when everything’s going well. Democrats have repeatedly cleaned up after Republicans when Republican policies cratered the economy (1992, 2008, 2020 … it’s more than a coincidence).

New Hampshire's a very white state, and Bolduc is expected to easily win white men. White women could also find the inflation and Antifa crime wave rhetoric appealing. Democrats are just a quarter of the New Hampshire electorate. Republicans are roughly a third, and about 40 percent are independents. Hillary Clinton, who narrowly won New Hampshire in 2016, just tied Donald Trump among independents. Joe Biden, however, crushed Trump among New Hampshire independents. 

“New Hampshire is very much a checks-and-balances type state, be different for the sake of being different,” said Brent Buchanan, president of Cygnal, a Republican polling firm.

That doesn’t sound like a well-reasoned “checks and balance” mentality. It’s more a 1990s teenage goth electorate.

Democrats spent millions boosting Bolduc over slightly less awful Republicans, but now there are concerns that the extremist could win. Who could’ve seen this coming, aside from everyone?

Hassan’s campaign manager Aaron Jacobs sent a hair on fire email to donors last week, lamenting that “while many Democrats are not taking Don Bolduc seriously, national Republicans are spending tens of millions on his behalf.” He described this as the worst of both worlds.

If Democrats gambled that “reasonable” Republicans would reject Bolduc in the general, that was a sucker’s bet. Bolduc literally called “moderate” Republican incumbent Gov. Sununu a Chinese communist “sympathizer,” but not long after Bolduc won the primary, Sununu embraced the guy he’d previously dismissed as a conspiracy theorist. There was actual hugging at a Republican unity breakfast. Sununu now considers Bolduc an “amazing individual,” and Bolduc will share a ballot with the popular governor. That’s not good.

Dave Carney, a Republican political strategist in New Hampshire, thinks the race is "eminently winnable" for Bolduc because "Maggie Hassan is so bad." Arnie Arnesen, a former Democratic legislator, and Fergus Cullen, former New Hampshire Republican Party head, discussed the race on WGBH News's "Talking Politics" with host Adam Reilly. They agreed that Hassan is the political equivalent to wallpaper, which is what boring people would say because wallpaper can be quite smashing. 

“I was on WGBH with @reillyadam last night talking about the #nhpolitics senate race and what a below-average, mediocre, and invisible senator Maggie Hassan has been”

— Fergus Cullen (@Fergus Cullen) 1665230320 

CULLEN: [Hassan] has been invisible. She's not been around. She's not been present. She's just there, like wallpaper.

Look, even the worst wallpaper is preferable to fascism, so New Hampshire voters, especially those fickle independents, should stick with Maggie Hassan.

[ Washington Post ]

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