2022 midterm election news as Democrats, Republicans race to November

On Sep 15, 2022

Ad wars heat up in battleground New Hampshire’s key Senate showdown between Hassan and Bolduc

As Fox News first reported
, the Senate Leadership Fund recently announced that it would spend $23 million to buy TV time in the small but crucial battleground state of New Hampshire, as the top super PAC that backs Senate Republicans targets Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan in a crucial race that’s one of a handful that will likely determine if the GOP wins back the chamber’s majority.

But after former Army Gen. Don Bolduc – a populist, MAGA-style Republican who ran an bare-bones outsider campaign – defeated more mainstream conservative and longtime New Hampshire Senate President Chuck Morse by a razor-thin margin in Tuesday’s GOP U.S. Senate primary, there were questions over whether the group – which is aligned with longtime Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, would honor its reservation.

That’s because there were concerns from some Republicans in the state and nationally that a primary victory by the retired general, who has severely struggled with fundraising and who had said he supported former President Donald Trump’s unproven claims the 2020 election was “stolen,” would allow Hassan to win re-election.

Two weeks ago, a newly formed super PAC named the White Mountain PAC, which had loose links to McConnell’s political orbit, dished out roughly $4 million to run TV commercials in New Hampshire blasting Bolduc for his “crazy ideas.” And pro-Democratic groups meddled in the GOP primary, with ads targeting Morse, whom they viewed as a tougher general election GOP contender.

But on Tuesday SLF launched their first ad
in New Hampshire, which targets Hassan over her repeated touting of her bipartisan chops in the Senate, her ability to cross party lines to pass legislation, and her spotlighting of her policy differences with President Biden. “Maggie Hassan claims she’s independent,” the narrator in the spot says. “She’s trying to trick you. Because Hassan votes with Joe Biden over 96% of the time.”

The group told Fox News they’re spending $2.3 million to run the new TV commercial this week. But it’s still not clear if SLF will honor their entire $23 million reservation through the November election. The SLF’s Democratic counterpart, the Senate Majority PAC, has yet to indicate if or how much they’ll spend to run ads in New Hampshire that boost Hassan or target Bolduc.