UNITED STATES: As the midterm primary season comes to a close, New Hampshire Republicans will decide on Tuesday between a candidate on the far right and a seasoned state legislator to challenge Democratic incumbent U.S. Senator Maggie Hassan.
Republicans have chosen candidates allied with former President Donald Trump repeatedly in the preceding nomination contests, which has some party members concerned about how this may affect their chances of taking back control of the United States. Senate in the midterm elections on November 8.
Regaining control of the Senate or the House of Representatives would give Republicans the authority to derail Democratic President Joe Biden’s legislative agenda and to start inquiries that may be divisive on the national stage.
The front-runner in New Hampshire, retired Army Brigadier General Don Bolduc, has echoed Trump’s false claims about 2020 election fraud and questioned whether the Federal Bureau of Investigation should be abolished following its August search of Trump’s Florida estate, where agents discovered a cache of secret documents. Trump has courted him, but Trump has not given him his support.
Bolduc is competing against state Senate President Chuck Morse, a less well-known candidate who is supported by the national Republican organization White Mountain PAC and has received at least $4.6 million in campaign contributions. Many previous contenders have failed to win over the public’s favour.
According to Linda Fowler, a political science professor at Dartmouth College, Morse would have a greater chance of defeating Hassan than Bolduc because he can win over the state’s independent voters, who make up the majority of voters.
Chris Sununu, the Republican governor of the state, backed Morse on Thursday, claiming that he would be Hassan’s most formidable opponent. While Bolduc has referred to Sununu as a “communist Chinese sympathizer,” Sununu has referred to Bolduc as a “conspiracy theorist.”
National Republicans were dismayed by Sununu’s choice last autumn to forgo a direct challenge against Hassan because they thought the governor, who comes from a prominent political family in New Hampshire, would have easily defeated Hassan.
Republicans’ hopes of taking control of the Senate have been diminished by this as well as the nomination of political newcomers like former football player Herschel Walker in Georgia and celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania. In the House of Representatives, they are still expected to win a majority.
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