McConnell PAC Pumps $23M Into New Hampshire Senate Race (Newsmax Special Debate Coverage)
By Eric Mack | Sunday, 04 September 2022 05:41 PM EDT
Showing the importance of flipping the seat of Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's super PAC is placing $23 million worth of television campaign ads to run from the day of the state primary until the general election Nov. 8.
The Senate Leadership Fund (SLF), tied to McConnell, announced the $23 million TV ad buy Friday. Notably the SLF mentions Hassan as a target, but it does not mention the GOP primary candidates vying to challenge the incumbent Democrat.
"Maggie Hassan's weak record of rubber-stamping Joe Biden's inflationary spending and taxes has hurt Granite Staters, and they know it," SLF President Steven Law wrote in a statement. "This is a top-tier pickup opportunity for us, putting the Senate majority within reach."
The Senate currently has 50 Republicans, but the 48 Democrats hold the majority with the two independents that caucus with them and the tiebreaking vote of Vice President Kamala Harris.
The SLF ads will be the first in New Hampshire for the 2022 cycle, but it does not name a Republican candidate before the Sept. 13 final primary vote. Former President Donald Trump has not made an endorsement in the race.
Retired Army Gen. Don Bolduc holds a double-digit lead in polling, according to RealClearPolitics. Bolduc appeared with opponents Bruce Fenton, Kevin Smith, and state Sen. Chuck Morse in August debate moderated by Newsmax host John Bachman at Saint Anselm College's Koonz Theatre in Manchester, New Hampshire.
"Maggie Hassan is going to do the same old things, the same old ways, and that has been hurting our country," Bolduc told Bachman. "She has supported Biden 100% of the time and all his policies that are ruining this country.
"Republicans, independent, Democrats, libertarians — whatever you call yourself, it should not matter. The future of our children is at stake here. The future of our grandchildren is at stake here, and she's at fault for 5½ years. She has not done anything to help Granite Staters.
"And I've been around the Granite State in every town and city for two years, and that is the complaint: We can't figure out one thing that she's done for the Granite State."
Bolduc stressed Trump-era policies during his allotted time during the debate.
"Listen, green energy renewables — that's good stuff, but we need our fossil fuels in order to have green energy," he said. "We cannot divest ourselves from fossil fuels. It is the bread and butter, the heart and soul of our energy independence. And if we don't have it, we're going to be energy-dependent.
"And look what it's done to us: It's made us weak. We are weak. China, Russia, North Korea, Iran are now having their way with us. Our homeland is weak. We are in trouble. And if we don't reverse the energy policies that Biden put in place, that reversed what President Trump had in place, and if we don't get Maggie Hassan out of there, we're gonna be in big trouble."