Rick Scott’s NRSC Reengages with New Hampshire Senate Race with $1M After McConnell Abandoned 

Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) Sat
John Raoux, J. Scott Applewhite/AP

Sen. Rick Scott’s (R-FL) National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) will reengage with New Hampshire’s Senate race with $1 million dollars after the Sen. Mitch McConnell-backed super PAC abandoned Republican candidate Gen. Don Bolduc last week.

The cash infusion comes at the perfect time for Gen. Bolduc, who is now virtually tied with Democrat incumbent Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH) after trailing in the polls by double digits just last month. New Hampshire’s Senate seat is one of eight battleground states that will determine which party controls the Senate.

The NRSC had previously shifted its resources and allowed the McConnell-backed Senate Leadership Fund (SLF) to take the lead in attacking Hassan, but the SLF announced Friday it was abandoning the General by canceling a $5.6 million ad buy, effectively sabotaging Gen. Bolduc.

On Tuesday, Scott said in a statement the NRSC is reengaging with Gen. Bolduc’s campaign due to positive internal polling. The $1 million ad buy will be jointly financed by both the NRSC and the campaign.

“Our polling, along with recent public polling, shows that this race is in the margin of error and winnable,” Scott told Axios. “The NRSC is proud to stand with General Bolduc. We’re going to win this race so Don Bolduc can bring real leadership back to this Senate seat.”

Scott’s decision to reenter the race comes as Hassan has outspent Gen. Bolduc by $9 million, according to third quarter fundraising totals. Hassan’s spending advantage appears to be stunted by Gen. Bolduc’s grassroots campaign.

“That doesn’t change what I’m doing and how I won the primary being outspent 20/1. Didn’t get anybody’s help there,” Bolduc told Breitbart News Saturday regarding Hassan’s funding advantage. “And we won because we worked harder than everybody else.”

“I’m there talking to Granite Staters, telling them how I am going to improve the economy, bring down inflation, do the things that need to be done to stop out-of-control spending,” he said. “And that resonates in comparison to Senator Hassan, who is hiding and lying with her ads and not doing anything.”

When asked about the SLF’s decision to cancel the $5.6 million ad buy, Gen. Bolduc said he had the momentum without McConnell’s help. “The momentum is great right now,” he said. “We were 15 points behind during the primary. We closed the gap to 7-5-3, and now we’re in a tie.”

Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.

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