GOP's Bolduc, Incumbent Sen. Hassan a Tossup in New Hampshire Don Bolduc (AP)
By John Gizzi | Thursday, 03 November 2022 04:38 PM EDT
The two latest polls to come out of New Hampshire show the heated Senate contest to be a virtual tie.
The just-completed Trafalgar Poll showed Republican nominee and retired Army Brig. Gen. Don Bolduc eking out a 47% to 46% lead over Democrat Sen. Maggie Hassan.
Trafalgar released its findings days after a St. Anselm College poll found near-identical results, with likely Granite State voters favoring Bolduc over Hassan by 48% to 47%.
These stunning figures come barely three weeks after Bolduc, a fierce supporter of Donald Trump, was being widely written off. At that time, the Senate Leadership Political Action Committee of Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell, decided to end its commitment to an independent expenditure on Bolduc's behalf and put its resources in other Senate contests.
This sudden about face by McConnell's PAC almost surely had to do with Bolduc's repeated vow that he would not support the Kentuckian for Senate leader.
Then, in the final week of October, the Sentinel Action Fund suddenly deployed over $1 million on an anti-Hassan TV spot. The actions by the fund, the PAC for the conservative Heritage Action For America, came as National Republican Senatorial Committee Chair Rick Scott of Florida arrived in New Hampshire to campaign with Bolduc.
Republicans who spoke to Newsmax were upbeat about the last-minute momentum for their Senate hopeful.
"I was at Republican headquarters in Keene," veteran GOP activist and contributor Augusta Petrone of Peterborough said Wednesday morning, "Things look so encouraging, we were all pinching ourselves. There's a feeling of cautious optimism for the party, and especially for Bolduc. Of course [popular GOP Gov. Chris] Sununu gives us blatant optimism."
Like the conservative Petrone, moderate former Rep. Charles Bass, R-N.H., said he sensed momentum.
"I think it's quite possible that we could sweep three of the four seats as the [St. Anselm] poll indicate." Said Bass, referring to the races for governor, Senate, and the state's two House districts.