Politics & Government

Primary Election 2022: Many New Hampshire GOP Voters Rebuke Establishment Republicans

Bolduc, "MAGA" supporters Leavitt, Burns head to the general election; did special interest money and illegal mailers influence races?

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New Hampshire Republican U.S. Senate candidate Don Bolduc, shakes hands with campaign volunteers after voting, Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2022, in Stratham.
New Hampshire Republican U.S. Senate candidate Don Bolduc, shakes hands with campaign volunteers after voting, Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2022, in Stratham. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

CONCORD, NH — The seven-week sprint to the general election for 2022 officially began Wednesday after a long evening and morning waiting for results to be tabulated with some candidates declaring victory early — with Republican primary voters rejecting establishment candidates.

After losing the GOP Senate primary in 2020, former Gen. Don Bolduc announced he would run again to challenge first-term U.S. Sen. Maggie Hassan. The nearly two-year pursuit of the seat, while not purchasing a single television ad, worked, as he declared victory on Wednesday. With 90 percent of the ballots counted, Bolduc had about a 1,400-vote lead over Senate President Chuck Morse, despite a late endorsement push by Gov. Chris Sununu, with the rest of the nine-candidate field trailing far behind.

Bolduc said he would stick to the strategy that got him this far — openness and transparency, town hall meetings, and debates. But he also hoped national financial support would be heading to the state in the final weeks of the campaign.

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While not making a resource commitment to the race, U.S. Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, congratulated the former general and said he ran a great race. Scott said the committee was “proud to stand” with Bolduc against Hassan.

“Her record in the Senate has been abysmal,” he said, “and Granite Staters realize that she has become nothing more than a rubber stamp for the Biden agenda. Inflation, a border crisis, rising crime, and a sputtering economy are the direct result of Hassan and Biden’s failed leadership.”

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Hassan fended off token opposition on Tuesday. This election cycle, she has spent more than $23.6 million and has around $7.3 million on hand. After voting, she thanked poll workers for strengthening democracy. She criticized Republicans for being “a yes vote for an anti-choice, corporate special interest agenda.”

The liberal special interest group, American Bridge 21st Century, attacked Bolduc, calling him a conspiracy theorist who would campaign to cut Social Security and Medicare, abolish the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and attack reproductive rights.

“It’s clear Don Bolduc couldn’t be more wrong for the people of New Hampshire, which is why voters will reject him come November,” Sarah Abel, an American Bridge 21st Century spokesperson, said.

Libertarian Party candidate Jeremy Kauffman is also on the ballot in November.

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In the 1st Congressional District, Karoline Leavitt, a former communications employee of both President Donald Trump and Elise Stefanik (R-NY), easily bested nine other candidates, including the 2020 GOP nominee, Matt Mowers, who was attempting a get at a second chance to face off against U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas (D-NH).

The spread between Leavitt and Mowers was nearly 10 percent of the vote, with 95 percent of the ballots counted.

"Team Karoline may have been outspent, but we were NOT outworked,” she said. “I am so humbled by the outpouring of support from thousands of people in every city and town across the 1st District. We won this election by pounding the pavement, knocking on thousands of doors, meeting voters face to face, and focusing on the issues that matter to our state. Now, Republicans must unite as we set our sights on November because there is nothing more important than stopping the radical Biden, Pelosi, Pappas Socialist agenda in its tracks.”

Pappas, who had no competition on Tuesday, said he was eager to earn votes in November and return to the position.

"In a GOP primary that drew national attention for extremism and divisiveness, the most extreme, divisive candidate appears to have prevailed tonight," he said. "Karoline Leavitt represents radical, uncompromising positions that are out of step with New Hampshire. She would vote for a federal ban on abortion, promised to write the bill to privatize Social Security, and strongly opposes lower prescription drug prices, support for American manufacturing, and bipartisan investments in New Hampshire's infrastructure.”

Both Leavitt and Bob Burns, the winner in the 2nd Congressional District, were likened as "MAGA" (Make America Great Again) Republicans, due to the promotion of their support for the former president.

Sununu, on Tuesday, was hoping for an at least 60 to 70 percent win, and he outperformed that expectation, beating five other opponents with nearly 79 percent of the vote with 92 percent of the ballots counted. He will face state Sen. Tom Sherman, who was unopposed for the Democrat nomination, as well as two Libertarian candidates, Karlyn Borysenko and Kelly Halldorson.

Illegal Mailers, Special Interest Money

It appears that illegal mailers and special interest money affected the results of the GOP primary.

A Democrat print house in New Bedford, Massachusetts, sent four mailers to voters in the 2nd Congressional District promoting Burns against George Hansel, the mayor of Keene, a moderate endorsed by Sununu. The mailers violated state and federal laws due to not having disclaimers notifying the voter who paid for the mailers. The company, Reynolds DeWalt, admitted to sending the mailers but refused to identify the person or entity that paid for them. Burns, Hansel, and U.S. Rep. Ann McLane Kuster (D-NH) denied involvement with the mailers.

Neither Maura Healey, the Democrat attorney general in Massachusetts, nor the federal Department of Justice or the state attorney here has done anything to enforce the law and reprimand the company and the financier of the illegal mailers. The New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office is still investigating the matter.

The mailers appeared to have worked or at least assisted in Burns fending off a late-surging Hansel by more than 2.5 percent of the vote, with 93 percent reporting.

The dirty trick echoes one in 2016, which probably cost incumbent U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte the seat. She lost the race to Hassan by about 1,000 votes. Yet days before the election, thousands of illegal mailers with factually incorrect information were sent from a New Jersey Democrat printer to voters in the state, driving who knows how many votes away from Ayotte to Aaron Day, a liberty independent, who garnered 17,000 votes.

No one has been held accountable for essentially stealing a Senate seat from the voters of New Hampshire in 2016, and there is nothing to stop anyone from doing it again in 2022.

At the polls in Manchester Tuesday, Sununu said the attorney general’s office was looking into the illegal mailers. He said the Legislature approved new laws giving the AG’s office “teeth” to investigate and go after vote fraudsters and election interference.

“If something comes up,” he said, “Formella will go after it.”

Sununu could not speak to the 2016 mailer that potentially cost Ayotte the Senate race because he was an executive councilor at the time. He said it was not a surprise the AG’s office at the time, which was appointed by Hassan, did not go after the illegal mailers since it assisted Hassan in winning the Senate seat.

When asked about what could be done to enforce state and federal laws when it came to illegal mailers, Hansel said, “it’s imperative that Republicans stand up for doing the right thing … establishing norms and accountability.” Democrats, he said, when they cannot reach consensus, or they do not like a public policy, they ram through their agenda anyway.

“That’s what we expect from them,” he said.

Hansel said the Democrats should not be meddling in Republican elections. Burns, he said, spread disinformation about him and the race, and then, Democrats helped him promote his campaign. Democrats, Hansel said, have been using dirty tricks to try and take him out since he got involved in his first race for mayor in 2019. New Hampshire voters, though, were “smarter than this,” and the meddling “will backfire,” Hansel said.

“I beat them then,” he said. “I’m going to beat them now. I will be victorious at the end of the day.”

In the end, Hansel came up short on that prediction.

Morse did not want to comment on the matter or the special interest money bombarding him with negativity, saying it would not matter because he, too, would prevail, which he did not.

Republican political action committee money, from insiders and establishment sources out of Washington, D.C., was also spent promoting the campaign of Mowers and denigrating Leavitt, which appeared to have backfired. On the eve of the election, online ads from an organization called Experience Matters For New Hampshire, attacking Leavitt’s youth, began popping up on the Internet with limited information. The ads linked to a Facebook site created on Aug. 24 with no disclaimer or other information.

“Experience Matters is a group committed to advocating for candidates who support the principles of free enterprise, individual liberty, and limited government,” the site said.

No information was available about the organization beyond the fact it listed its address as a mailbox at Staples on Lafayette Road in Seabrook.

2022 Campaign Coverage

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