What To Know About The “Bloodletting” In The #NHSen GOP Primary

In response to Chuck Morse and Kevin Smith’s entrance into the New Hampshire Republican Senate primary, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee spokesperson Amanda Sherman released the following statement:

“After failing to get their top Senate recruit, Republicans are left with a messy and divisive primary filled with bottom-tier candidates. Whichever candidate finally emerges from this intraparty brawl will be badly damaged – and we look forward to these Republicans exposing each other’s flaws and spending months proving how out of step they are with Granite State voters.”

Here’s what to know about the messy NH GOP Senate primary:

• Republicans have been left “scrambling” in New Hampshire with “no major viable GOP challenger” after their massive failure to recruit Governor Sununu. Sununu’s decision to pass on the race was “a major blow to Senate Republicans” who “bemoan a thin bench in the state” and admit “what we’re looking at are B-tier candidates.” Months have passed and “there’s still no major viable GOP challenger who’s stepped up to run.”

• New Hampshire Republicans’ “unprecedented” effort to try and subvert voters and anoint a candidate through secretive back-room meetings was a complete failure. Smith openly mocked the meeting on Twitter, Bolduc wasn’t even invited, and the meeting drew condemnation from the conservative Union Leader editorial board, the far-right activist website Granite Grok, and Republican Senate Majority Leader Jeb Bradley.

• Republican candidate Don Bolduc has accused his own party of trying to rig the race. Bolduc  spoke at a local Republican Committee where he slammed the New Hampshire Republican Party for trying to recruit candidates to run against him who they can “control.” Bolduc added that “the NH GOP doesn’t support me. Governor Sununu doesn’t support me,” and he claimed that the NH GOP is bribing local GOP committees with funds if they don’t support Bolduc’s candidacy.

• Loyalty to Donald Trump and trying to appeal to the far-right wing of the GOP — not the issues Granite State voters care about — will dominate the race. Trump has put out multiple statements alleging massive voter fraud in the state, and released statements praising Don Bolduc. Columnist David Dhribman wrote “Trump loyalists have taken an increasingly prominent place in the formal organization of the New Hampshire GOP,” and Republicans expect Trump willplay a key role in deciding whoever wins the Republican nomination — even though other New Hampshire Republicans say the “Trump element in the party doesn’t have the status or capability to win the general election.”

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