KINGSTON, New Hampshire — New Hampshire’s Republican Senate nominee, Don Bolduc, had nothing but praise Thursday for Gov. Chris Sununu (R) after clashing with him during the primary.
Bolduc, speaking to the Washington Examiner after a campaign stop, brushed off comments Sununu made earlier this year painting him as a “conspiracy-theorist type.” Sununu has endorsed Bolduc in his race against Democratic incumbent Sen. Maggie Hassan after standing behind a different Republican in the primary.
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“It’s just politics. It’s the business,” Bolduc said. “The winner comes out of the primary, and we have to rally around the winners, and we have to try and get them elected because they are going to be the source of change.”
Bolduc praised Sununu’s ability to unite the Republican Party in New Hampshire “effectively” and said the governor’s popularity is helpful to GOP candidates.
“He’s popular with Republicans, independents, and Democrats, so when he endorses you, you get a lot more — a lot more votes. And I’m grateful for that,” he said. “Primary and the general election: two different animals. And you just got to be big enough to move forward.”
The two Republicans have been critical of one another in the past, with Bolduc blasting Sununu as a “communist Chinese sympathizer” on a radio show in 2021 and Sununu responding that Bolduc was “not a serious candidate” and would make it “much harder” for the GOP to win were he the nominee.
Sununu wound up endorsing Bolduc, even pledging to do so the day before the primary in September.
“Primaries are primaries. I get it,” Sununu said of Bolduc’s criticisms. “At the end of the day, it’s about what’s best for the country, what’s best to get results, to be sure.”
One of the main topics the two disagree on is the legitimacy of the 2020 election. Bolduc has oscillated on his position, saying he believed it was stolen from former President Donald Trump during the primary but afterward walking back his claim.
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“It is not just a one-issue — you can’t say, ‘Well, based on that one issue, we vehemently disagree, so, therefore, we shouldn’t be casting our vote.’ I don’t think anybody should be a one-issue voter regardless of the issue,” Sununu said of his disagreement with Bolduc over the election on CNN on Tuesday.
Polls are showing Bolduc within striking distance of ousting Hassan, with the most recent showing him up by 1 point. A GOP win in the race could prove pivotal for the Republican Party, which only needs to net one seat to flip control of the Senate.
