New Hampshire Senate President Chuck Morse conceded to retired Army Gen. Don Bolduc in the five-way Republican primary race for U.S. Senate, meaning Bolduc will face Democratic incumbent Sen. Maggie Hassan in the general election Nov. 8.
In a statement on Twitter, Morse thanked his supporters and stated “The focus this fall needs to be on defeating Maggie Hassan.”
After falling short in his 2020 U.S. Senate bid, the 60-year-old Bolduc rode a populist message throughout his campaign, fueled by dogged grassroots campaigning and contempt for the political establishment.
On the campaign trail, Bolduc also echoed former President Donald Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was decided by voter fraud. And his rise to frontrunner — he never trailed in any poll — was boosted early on by anti-COVID vaccine activists who embraced Bolduc’s cries of “tyranny” in describing pandemic lockdowns.
Heading into the final stretch of the primary, Republican leaders in New Hampshire and Washington saw Morse — a longtime leader in the State House who campaigned on his record as a budget expert and secured a last-minute endorsement from Gov. Chris Sununu — as the better choice to defeat Hassan.
But Morse was also, by all accounts, the party establishment’s second choice. National GOP leaders wanted Sununu to run for Senate and spent much of last year trying to woo him into the race. Sununu’s decision to instead seek a fourth term in Concord left no obvious mainstream choice for Republicans and allowed Bolduc, who ran on minimal fundraising, time to build the kind of name recognition and support he lacked in his first campaign.
It also induced other candidates, none well known – including Bitcoin investor Bruce Fenton, businessman VikramMansharamani and former Londonderry Town Manager Kevin Smith – to get into the race.
Hassan faced a much-less-contested Democratic primary, easily defeating lesser-known candidates Paul J. Krautmann and John Riggieri. She is considered among the most-vulnerable incumbents in the U.S. Senate, after just narrowly winning her first election against Republican Kelly Ayotte in 2016. But Democrats hope record-setting fundraising and a political atmosphere changed by the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the constitutional right to abortion may help Hassan, who has never lost a statewide race since her election as governor in 2012.
Sununu wins GOP primary for governor
Incumbent Gov. Chris Sununu was projected to win New Hampshire’s GOP primary, garnering 79 percent of the votes, 62,322-7,994, over Karen Testerman, with 57 percent of the results in Tuesday night.
Sununu will face Dr. Tom Sherman in the general election in November. Sherman was unopposed in the primary.
Executive Council
In Executive Council District 2, which includes Dublin, Hancock, Peterborough and Sharon, Democratic incumbent CindeWarmington won her primary, defeating former Executive Councilor Michael Cryans of Hanover and Bradford Todd of Keene.
Warmington, who is seeking her second term, has been the only Democrat on the five-person council for the past two years.
She will face three-term Republican state Sen. Harold French of Canterbury, who defeated Kim Strathdee of Lincoln in the primary, and independent Joanne Martine in the general election.
In District 5, which represents Antrim, Bennington, Francestown, Greenfield, Greenville, Jaffrey, Lyndeborough, Mason, New Ipswich, Rindge, Temple and Wilton, Republican incumbent Dave Wheeler of Milford turned back the primary challenge of Anne Copp of Derry, and will face Democrat Shoshanna Kelly of Nashua, who was unopposed in the primary.
Reporting from the Nashua Telegraph and material from Citizens Count was used in this story. These articles are being shared by partners in The Granite State News Collaborative. For more information visit collaborativenh.org.