MANCHESTER, New Hampshire — Don Bolduc, hopping from one town hall to the next on a brisk fall day in New Hampshire, one of the last before voters cast their ballots in the state’s Senate race, expressed confidence that he can defeat Maggie Hassan, the incumbent Democrat who’s held the seat since 2017.
If the retired Army brigadier general can unseat Hassan on Nov. 8, it would prove crucial to Republicans’ quest to retake control of the upper chamber in Congress next year.
He’s within striking distance of Hassan and even ahead by 1 point in the two latest polls.
But Bolduc says it’s the energy he feels at campaign events that suggests a GOP victory here in New Hampshire.
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“I don’t trust polls, even when they say I’m up,” Bolduc told the Washington Examiner following a Thursday stop in Kingston, New Hampshire, where he spent over an hour speaking and mingling with voters.
Matt Schlapp, director of the American Conservative Union, and his wife Mercedes campaigned with Bolduc, as did 1st Congressional District candidate Karoline Leavitt. Shadowed by his service dog Victor, who helps him deal with the lingering effects of a brain injury and PTSD from his three decades of military service, Bolduc said it’s not just polling that has him optimistic.
“It’s a quantitative factor among many others, but I go by instinct and gut, and by what I see on the ground and by what I hear since I have been on the ground — this is my 77th town hall. I did two today,” he said. “Guess what? I have over a thousand volunteers all over the state. I get a lot of good feedback. The momentum is ours.”
This confidence from Bolduc sounds a bit like former President Donald Trump, who notoriously spurned polls that showed him losing and cited his large and boisterous rallies as indications he would win in 2016. Bolduc received the endorsement of the former president earlier this week.
But Bolduc has the polling to back him up: In just six weeks, he’s closed a yawning 8-point gap between himself and Hassan. Today, his average deficit is less than 3 points, while a new poll from St. Anselm College puts him ahead by a single point.
Bolduc wasn’t the first choice of establishment Republicans in the state, who feared his views were too hard-line for him to succeed in a perennial swing state such as New Hampshire.
The GOP primary here was one of many that national Democrats meddled in, splashing the airwaves with millions in advertising to boost Bolduc and, at least in theory, set up an easier matchup for Hassan in November.
Despite Republicans countering with millions to boost their preferred candidate — Chuck Morse, the president of the New Hampshire Senate — Bolduc ultimately prevailed in the September primary.
The party has since coalesced around him, and with the aid of outside groups such as the National Republican Senatorial Committee, Bolduc has given Republicans hope.
Yet election analysts still rate the race as “leans Democrat” and believe the GOP would need a strong election night nationally for Bolduc to unseat Hassan.
“I am the underdog, but I’m doing it through hard work,” Bolduc said. “I do more in 36 hours than that woman has done in 36 weeks on the campaign trail. I’m outworking her, I’m on the ground, I’m everywhere doing stuff — five events a day.”
Bolduc said the outside spending by GOP super PACs and support from the Republican National Committee have been immensely helpful and that he’s “grateful for all their help.”
“We need their help with ads. She puts four ads out to my every one,” he said, referring to Hassan’s large fundraising advantage. “The difference is mine tell you the truth, hers are telling you lies.”
Bolduc argues he’s out-hustled Hassan on the campaign trail and that the Democrat won’t answer whether she’s visited every town and city in New Hampshire, which he says he has over the course of his nearly two-year campaign.
“I don’t get an answer. So my assumption is no. If you haven’t invested that kind of time and talk to people, I just don’t know how you’re going to get their trust and confidence to vote for you again.”
Hassan told reporters after her debate with Bolduc on Wednesday night that she has made it a priority to talk to voters across the state.
“I think it is really important that we continue to talk with Granite Staters, which is something I have worked to do,” she said. “Since my time in the state Senate and then governor, now in the United States Senate, I’ve been to every corner of the state. I go to where voters are and talk to them about what’s on their mind.”
In terms of the tightening polls, she told the Washington Examiner, “We always knew it would be a very close race. New Hampshire is proudly independent, as it should be, and they expect people to make their case every election, and that’s what I’ve continued to do.”
At a diner in Londonderry, voters who gathered on Wednesday morning for a meet-and-greet with Leavitt, the 1st District Republican, balked at the idea that the Democrats are making themselves available to voters.
“You don’t see Chris Pappas,” Tom Estey, a Republican who owns a country store and got politically involved for the first time this cycle, said of the incumbent 1st District Democrat. “Chris Pappas may be a little bit more available than Maggie Hassan. You don’t see her anymore.”
Soaring energy costs and inflation have factored heavily into the campaigns, with several voters telling the Washington Examiner that their power bills have more than doubled before winter has even set in.
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“We need to bring back fossil fuels and get this whole energy thing under control because I don’t even know how some of these people in the Northeast this winter are going to afford their food, their oil, their rent, and electricity,” Estey said. “I mean, it’s just killing everyone.”
