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 to take on Sen. Maggie Hassan (D), fending off a challenge from the establishment favorite, state Senate President Chuck Morse.

The Associated Press called the race on Wednesday at 12:03 p.m. Morse conceded the race early Wednesday morning.

The race is expected to be one of the most competitive of this election cycle. Hassan won her first term in 2016 by about a tenth of a percentage point, and the nonpartisan Cook Political Report rates her seat “lean Democrat.” 

Republicans see the seat as a key pickup opportunity but in recent weeks had grown worried that nominating Bolduc could complicate their path.

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

Bolduc also made a bid for the Senate GOP nomination in 2020 to run against Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D) but lost to Republican Corky Messner.

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.”

Trump did not end up making an endorsement in the state’s Senate GOP primary.

Sununu, on the other hand, made a last-minute endorsement for Morse, though he said last weekend that he would support whoever won the Republican nomination.

In addition to Sununu, Morse received key endorsements from the New Hampshire Union Leader newspaper, anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony List Candidate Fund and the National Rifle Association.