Midterm Memo: New Hampshire GOP voters reject establishment candidates for ‘populist MAGA fighters’

The Republican establishment, such that it is, took a beating in New Hampshire’s closely watched primaries — and this time, they can’t pin the defeats (plural) on intervention by former President Donald Trump.

This time, it was the Democratic Party that meddled and, by design, propelled a slate of Republicans to the nomination for Senate and in two congressional districts who top Republicans in Concord and Washington believe jeopardize their party’s prospects in otherwise very winnable midterm elections in New Hampshire. All told, Democratic groups spent millions of dollars on the effort, successfully countering a spending binge on behalf of the losers by organizations linked to GOP leaders.

To understand why the Democrats invested so much money to manipulate the outcome of Tuesday’s Republican primaries in New Hampshire, take a look at what a veteran GOP operative in New Hampshire told me about the party’s chance of ousting Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH) as well as Reps. Annie Kuster (D-NH) and Chris Pappas (D-NH) with Senate nominee Don Bolduc, 1st Congressional District nominee Karoline Leavitt, and 2nd District nominee Robert Burns as the standard bearers:

“The fall will be unpredictable until things settle a little,” this GOP operative prefaced before describing Republican odds of winning in those three races as “competitive at the best and wipeout at the worst.” The worst-case scenario, this party apparatchik said, is “more probable.” This concern is shared by, among others, New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (R), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA).

Sununu endorsed New Hampshire Senate President Chuck Morse in the GOP Senate primary, and a super PAC with ties to McConnell spent nearly $5 million on television in the state bashing Bolduc. No matter; the retired Army brigadier general, mounting his second bid for Senate after losing in the primary in 2020, held off Morse 37.1% to 35.8%.

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