What They’re Saying: Bolduc’s NH Primary Victory A “Disastrous” “S— Show”

Fox News: “A veteran GOP consultant called the results in New Hampshire ‘disastrous,’ while another termed it a ‘s— show.’”
Axios: “The GOP’s path to win back a Senate majority has narrowed, with Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) better positioned to win re-election.”

News coverage is highlighting how Republicans are “apoplectic” and “skeptical” of “far-right” New Hampshire GOP Senate nominee Don Bolduc – calling his nomination a “disastrous” “s— show” that leaves “Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) better positioned to win re-election.”

See for yourself:

New York Times: Bolduc Wins New Hampshire Senate Primary, Realizing G.O.P. Fears

• Mr. Bolduc’s… success adds New Hampshire to the list of battleground states where Republicans this year chose candidates firmly in the Trumpian mold to compete in general elections that Republicans have historically won by reaching out to independents and conservative Democrats.

• “I signed a letter with 120 other generals and admirals saying that Donald Trump won the election and, damn it, I stand by” it, Mr. Bolduc said at a debate last month. He has also said he was open to abolishing the F.B.I.

• Mr. Sununu, a moderate and popular Republican in the state, was outspoken in calling Mr. Bolduc a “conspiracy-theory extremist” whom most voters did not take seriously.

• With New Hampshire’s primary elections so late in the year, Mr. Bolduc has just eight weeks before the general election to move beyond appeals to the Republican base and reach out to independents and conservative Democrats, voters who traditionally add to the coalition that Republican candidates need to win statewide in New Hampshire.

• Mainstream Republicans in the state have been skeptical that Mr. Bolduc will be able to modulate his image after two years of appealing to the Trump-centric party base.

Fox News: Trump stayed neutral, but MAGA-Republicans, meddling Democrats, win big in New Hampshire’s fiery GOP primaries

• The victories by Bolduc, Leavitt and Burns are leaving some Republican strategists apoplectic. A veteran GOP consultant called the results in New Hampshire “disastrous,” while another termed it a “s— show,” with just eight weeks to go until the general election. Both operatives asked for anonymity to speak more freely.

• There were concerns from some Republicans in the state and nationally that a primary victory by the retired general, who has severely struggled with fundraising, will allow Hassan to win re-election.

• Two weeks ago, a newly formed super PAC named the White Mountain PAC, which has loose links to longtime Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell’s political orbit, dished out roughly $4 million to run TV commercials in New Hampshire blasting Bolduc for his “crazy ideas.”

Associated Press: Election denier Bolduc wins New Hampshire GOP Senate race

• Bolduc’s victory likely reignites disappointment among some in the national party that Republican Gov. Chris Sununu, a relatively popular moderate who might have posed more of a threat to Hassan, chose instead to run for reelection.

• Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell acknowledged the challenge last month… He bemoaned “candidate quality” as a factor that could sway some outcomes in his chamber.

Axios: MAGA’s New Hampshire sweep

• The GOP’s path to win back a Senate majority has narrowed, with Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) better positioned to win re-election.

• The biggest defeat for the GOP establishment came in the Senate primary, where state Senate President Chuck Morse conceded to right-wing retired Gen. Don Bolduc — who faced over $4.6 million in super PAC spending on Morse’s behalf from a Mitch McConnell-aligned group.

USA Today: New Hampshire GOP Senate primary: Trump-style candidate’s win expected to help keep seat blue

• The retired brigadier general’s win was an outcome establishment Republicans tried to avoid, believing Bolduc’s electability in November could cost them their chances of reclaiming the Senate majority.

• White Mountain PAC, a GOP-aligned PAC, spent $4.6 million in New Hampshire to broadcast ads both supporting Morse and criticizing Bolduc. The ads… attacked Bolduc and pointed out Bolduc’s electability, saying his “crazy ideas won’t help us defeat (Democratic incumbent Sen.) Maggie Hassan.”

• Besides claiming the election was stolen, Bolduc has supported repealing the 17th Amendment, which allows for Senators to be elected by popular vote. He’s also suggested the FBI should be abolished in the wake of the Justice Department’s search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.

CNN: Trump ally’s victory in New Hampshire GOP primary completes Senate battleground map

• The primary in New Hampshire, which was thrown open after Sununu rebuffed national Republicans’ efforts to recruit him, has been a window into the GOP struggle that’s been waged across the political map over the spring and summer.

• [Bolduc] has a penchant for saying controversial things… in response, Sununu called Bolduc a “conspiracy-theorist-type candidate” and “not a serious candidate” in an interview with WGIR last month.

• Still, Republican voters again ignored establishment preferences and opted for the candidate who has aligned himself more closely with Trump, even if doing so comes at the cost of electability in November.

• A pre-primary season of recruiting misses by top Republicans left the party without what it viewed as its strongest candidates in key races — including governors like Sununu and Arizona’s Doug Ducey.

• Then, a summer of bruising Senate primaries — many of them shaped by Trump’s endorsements and pro-Trump voters’ demands for candidates who embrace his lies about election fraud — left Republicans fretting about the quality of the party’s nominees and scrambling to close Democrats’ fundraising advantage.

The Hill: Far-right candidate Bolduc wins New Hampshire Senate primary to take on Hassan

• Don Bolduc, a retired Army general who has espoused former President Trump’s 2020 election claims, is projected to win New Hampshire’s Republican Senate primary.

• Bolduc has falsely claimed that former President Trump won the 2020 election and once claimed the state’s Republican governor was a “Chinese communist sympathizer.”

• Gov. Chris Sununu (R) has called Bolduc a “conspiracy theorist-type candidate” and said in an August radio interview that Republicans would have a harder time running against Hassan if the retired Army general was the GOP nominee.

• Corey Lewandowski, a former campaign manager to Trump, also cautioned the former president against making a possible endorsement for Bolduc, saying in a piece for the Daily Caller last month that “Bolduc is not a serious candidate.”

NYMag: Republicans Shudder as Extremist Don Bolduc Wins Senate Primary

• Thanks to his regularly odd positions — such as support for repealing the 17th Amendment in order to let legislatures elect U.S. senators and his attacks on Sununu as a “Chinese communist sympathizer” — Bolduc is thought to be an especially weak challenger to Hassan.

• New Hampshire Republicans have saddled themselves with an exceptionally MAGA-ish Senate candidate in a tough general election.

Washington Post (Opinion): Surprise wins by MAGA cranks will make 2022 harder for the GOP

• Last month, New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu warned fellow Republicans that nominating wild-eyed Trumpist Don Bolduc for Senate could be disastrous. Bolduc would make it “much harder” to win, said Sununu, slamming Bolduc as a “conspiracy-theory extremist.”

• Bolduc has lent support to Trump’s conspiracy theories about 2020 and has suggested the outcome was corrupted by socialists and Marxists, putting the American way of life in grave danger. He flatly declared “Trump won” and floated scrapping the FBI after the search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort.

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