New Hampshire right-of-center Dem Maggie Hassan is a putrid wretch and I've been predicting she has no path to victory next year. I was wrong. Not about the putrid wretch part; about the no path to victory part. She has a "D" score from ProgressivePunch and she is known by many working families in New Hampshire for her vote against raising the minimum wage, which passed the House and-- in part thanks to her-- failed in the Senate. I figured that would be the last nail in her political coffin.
But I didn't know anything about Donald Bolduc at the time and figured New Hampshire's popular Republican governor, Chris Sununu would be the GOP's Senate candidate. This week Sununu decided not to run, leaving the nomination to Bolduc, who is apparently certifiably insane. A retired Brigadier General who served in Afghanistan where he suffered a brain injury in 2005, from which he has apparently never recovered.
Bolduc, who is unsure what year he was born in, tried running against Jeanne Shaheen in 2020 but he was defeated in the Republican primary, garnering 42.3% of the vote. He immediately declared his candidacy against Hassan. He's been running around spouting unhinged conspiracy theories ever since, especially about how the U.S. "has taken a hard left turn toward Socialism and a Marxist form of tyrannical government" and how Trump won the election.
On Wednesday, reporting for the New Hampshire Journal, Michael Graham wrote that "During a conspiracy-spinning interview with radio host Jack Heath Tuesday, retired Brig. Gen. Donald Bolduc called fellow Republican Chris Sununu a 'Chinese Communist sympathizer' whose family business 'supports terrorism,' and claimed he drove the governor from the U.S. Senate race."
Hassan must have popped open a bottle champagne. That's probably the election right there!
“I derailed Gov. Sununu from running for Senate,” Bolduc said. “Let’s face it-- the most powerful political family in New Hampshire made a decision not to run against a political outsider for the United States Senate.
“We ran a Sun Tzu-like campaign that brought to the forefront all of his flaws for serving at the national level as a U.S. Senator. And he surprised all of his supporters because in the 11th hour, he looked at the polls and there was no guarantee could beat Bolduc. And he can’t afford a loss based on his future ambitions in the political arena.”
A UNH Survey Center poll released in October found that while Sununu led Sen. Maggie Hassan 45-42 percent, Bolduc trails her 47-42 percent.
Bolduc also called Sununu a “Chinese Communist sympathizer” who’s “in business with Saudi Arabian companies that give money to terrorists. He’s a globalist world-government guy.”
While some of Bolduc’s rhetoric appears to be motivated by personal anger at Sununu’s unwillingness to back him in last year’s Senate primary, the retired general has embraced conspiracy theories as a central part of his campaign.
Bolduc is touting Trump’s fact-free claims about the Biden campaign stealing the 2020 presidential campaign.
Bolduc was also one of 124 retired generals and admirals who released a letter in May claiming the election was rigged in Biden’s favor. And his most recent campaign event headlined disgraced former Trump National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.
“He was a lousy candidate when he was sane,” one NHGOP insider told NHJournal. “Running as a lunatic isn’t much of an improvement.”
Bring on the crazy...