Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), is dedicating significant resources to aid Gen. Don Bolduc’s campaign in New Hampshire’s swing state Senate race, while Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has remained silent on Bolduc’s primary victory.
Of the nearly $30 million dedicated to helping Bolduc’s campaign, $6.5 million is from the NRSC. The committee is “going to be all-in to make sure he wins,” Scott told Politico after Gen. Bolduc’s Republican primary win on Tuesday. The $24.5 million difference is comprised of multiple Republican donors. Democrats have thus far only allocated $20 million to the race.
The Senate Leadership Fund, a McConnell-backed super PAC, has reportedly not made any adjustments to funding Gen. Bolduc’s campaign after his primary victory. The McConnell-backed fund has about $23 million sitting on the sidelines.
The fund, “which many Republican operatives speculate was behind the pro-Morse effort, did not release a statement congratulating Bolduc, as it has done after nearly every Republican Senate primary this year,” Politico reported. McConnell has been dissatisfied with the “candidate quality” in the 2022 cycle, seemly blaming Scott for not supporting Republican establishment candidates. It should be noted former President Donald Trump has pushed Scott to challenge McConnell for his top leadership position.
Despite McConnell’s absence, top Republican senators have voiced support for Gen. Bolduc’s campaign against Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH). “I think we’ve got to do what we can,” Senate Minority Whip John Thune (R-SD) told Politico. “Every one of these on the map could be the difference between the majority or not.” Number three man in the GOP Senate leadership, Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY), also told the publication he is “fully supportive” of Gen. Bolduc.
“It’s going to be a tough race. It’s a tough year,” she said. “It’s going to be about the choice that people face about their future. And that there wasn’t much difference between Chuck Morse’s positions on issues and Don Bolduc’s,” Shaheen added about Gen. Bolduc’s primary opponent.
Gen. Bolduc, who served ten tours in Afghanistan, was the projected winner of Republican primary around 11:20 p.m. with about 50 percent of the vote reporting. During the primary, Gen. Bolduc overcame challenger Morse, who was named McConnell’s “handpicked candidate.” Endorsed by popular and establishment Gov. Chris Sununu (R), Morse lost despite being backed by more than $4 million in ad spending from the Washington, D.C., establishment uniparty. Rumors suggest McConnell was behind much of the money against Gen. Bolduc.
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.
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