Noveletsky Claims MAGA Lane In New Hampshire's 1st Congressional District GOP Primary

By Leonard Robinson, NH Journal

When her GOP primary opponent Anthony DiLorenzo stumbled on the “Are you the MAGA candidate?” question at his filing, Hollie Noveletsky put his response in an attack ad. So it was no surprise when she appeared ready for the same question when she filed her candidacy documents with the secretary of state on Thursday.

“We need strong borders, a strong presence on the world stage, and energy independence,” Noveletsky told reporters. “If that makes me MAGA, then yes.”

Noveletsky is hoping the MAGA title can get her what she narrowly lost two years ago: the GOP NH-01 nomination. She’ll have to get past the self-funded businessman DiLorenzo, as well as Bedford Republican activist Melissa Bailey and state Rep. Brian Cole (R-Manchester).

Noveletsky, a nurse practitioner by training and owner of Novel Iron Works in Greenland, is once again putting American manufacturing and trade at the center of her campaign.

“We need to bring back our American manufacturing, American jobs, because we’re all about affordability, and if we don’t have good-paying American jobs, then we’re not going to be able to afford our housing, our energy,” Noveletsky said Wednesday. “I’ve been fighting for 25 years for the American worker and for American manufacturing, and I am proud to take that fight to Washington, D.C.”

Noveletsky appears to have picked up a few tricks from her last campaign.

For starters, she showed up in Concord a week after the other Republicans in the race, which means she didn’t have to share the spotlight with the rest of the field.

This time around, Noveletsky has also snagged early endorsements from the Associated Builders and Contractors NH/VT chapter and Maggie’s List, a PAC supporting conservative women running for federal office.

She hasn’t been afraid to throw punches since getting in the race, especially at DiLorenzo, the presumed front-runner. Using attack ads, Noveletsky has attempted to portray DiLorenzo as insufficiently aligned with Trump and out of touch with GOP primary voters.

Her first ad targeted DiLorenzo’s remarks on immigration during a January appearance on The Granite Discourse podcast.

DiLorenzo was critical of the Biden administration’s four years of not enforcing immigration law, but he suggested it was unfair for the government to turn around and deport illegal immigrants who are part of the American workforce.

“So, if somebody’s paying taxes—they’re not a convicted felon, they’re contributing to society—I don’t mind having a pathway,” DiLorenzo said in the interview.

DiLorenzo, a longtime GOP donor, is still viewed by many GOP political professionals as the likely nominee. He has the resources to get his name ID up before the Sept. 8 primary and, if necessary, go negative on the rest of the field.

Still, Noveletsky has shown she can raise money, too. She narrowly led the Republican field last quarter, raising $96,000, about $4,000 more than DiLorenzo’s $92,000.

DiLorenzo reported a total haul of $443,000, but most of that came from contributions he made to his own campaign. Cole reported raising $36,400, while Bailey reported $13,648.

And while DiLorenzo is trying to nuance the Trump issue, Noveletsky is running ads describing herself as a “pro-Trump conservative who puts America first.” That could help her in a GOP primary where Trump remains popular. Seventy-three percent of New Hampshire Republicans approve of Trump’s job performance, according to the latest NHJournal/Praecones Analytica poll. Nationally, 80 percent of Republicans approve of Trump, according to the latest Fox News poll.

Beyond the GOP primary electorate, however, Trump remains a political liability in New Hampshire. A recent University of New Hampshire Survey Center poll found six in 10 Granite Staters disapprove of Trump’s overall job performance.

That’s the dilemma facing New Hampshire Republicans this cycle: Being pro-Trump is great for the primary, but what happens in November?

This story was originally published by the NH Journal, an online news publication dedicated to providing fair, unbiased reporting on, and analysis of, political news of interest to New Hampshire. For more stories from the NH Journal, visit NHJournal.com.