New Hampshire Republican Senate candidate Gen. Don Bolduc told Breitbart News Saturday that his campaign has the momentum to defeat Democrat Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH) without Sen. Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) support.
The McConnell-backed Senate Leadership Fund will pull all its ads off television in New Hampshire starting October 25, Shane Goldmacher of the News York Times reported Friday afternoon.
When asked by Breitbart News’s Matt Boyle if he needed the recently stripped-away $5.6 million to win come November 8, Bolduc said he has been running a race for two years without McConnell’s help and is now tied with Hassan in the polls.
Senate Mitch McConnell (R-KY) talks with reporters at the U.S. Capitol December 1, 2020, in Washington, DC. (Tom Williams-Pool/Getty Images)
“The momentum is great right now,” he said. “We were 15 points behind during the primary. We closed the gap to 7-5-3, and now we’re in a tie. The momentum is going our way because we’re campaigning the Granite State way – five events a day is my average out there on the ground – town halls, house parties, community events, you name it.”
“Now, I can’t lie — I need money,” the retired U.S. Army brigadier general said. “And if people go to — and they can go to DonBolduc.com, they can certainly help me out, but we’re gonna continue to move forward. We did it with less than $500,000 last time, and we did it by working hard and not counting on anybody except Granite Staters.”
Bolduc added that he had no idea why McConnell pulled the $5.6 million of Senate Leadership Fund money from his campaign, potentially sabotaging the GOP’s chances of retaking the Senate.
“I really don’t know,” he explained about McConnell’s decision. “They [McConnell’s fund] don’t explain to me their business plan. They’ve got a whole country to manage. They’re doing their things and they’re gonna make their business decisions.”
The McConnell-backed Senate Leadership Fund has pulled its support from the retired general while giving about $9 million to protect 21-year incumbent Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) from Trump-endorsed Republican challenger Kelly Tshibaka, who is leading in the polls by a slim margin. Meanwhile, Bolduc has been outspent by nearly $9 million, third quarter campaign fundraising totals show.
Sen. Maggie Hassan (D- NH) listens to testimony from Customs and Border Patrol Acting Commissioner Mark Morgan during a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee hearing on conditions at the Southern border, Tuesday, July 30, 2019, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP)
“That doesn’t change what I’m doing and how I won the primary being outspent 20/1. Didn’t get anybody’s help there,” Bolduc said. “And we won because we worked harder than everybody else.”
“I’m there talking to Granite Staters, telling them how I am going to improve the economy, bring down inflation, do the things that need to be done to stop out-of-control spending,” he said. “And that resonates in comparison to Senator Hassan, who is hiding and lying with her ads and not doing anything.
“She’s doing Zoom calls as a way to campaign,” Gen. Bolduc added. “She’s not out, she’s not about. As far as I’m concerned, she’s checking every block to lose, and we’re gonna go past her, and we’re gonna win this.”
New Hampshire Republican U.S. Senate candidate Don Bolduc gestures as he is introduced during a debate, Wednesday, September 7, 2022, in Henniker, New Hampshire. (Mary Schwalm/AP)
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.
