The Republican super PAC aligned with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is canceling $5.6 million in television ads for New Hampshire Senate hopeful Don Bolduc that was reserved for the closing weeks of the race.
The Senate Leadership Fund’s announcement Friday means the PAC is effectively giving up on Bolduc’s bid to unseat Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH) in a race that was once viewed as winnable for Republicans. Bolduc, a retired Army general who has denied the legitimacy of the 2020 election, won a crowded GOP Senate primary in early September. GOP leaders had viewed New Hampshire, and Hassan’s seat specifically, as vulnerable for Democrats this election cycle. Bolduc’s fate, however, began to turn as polls showed Hassan gaining ground in what was originally expected to be a tight race.
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“As the cycle comes to a close, we are shifting resources to where they can be most effective to achieve our ultimate goal: winning the majority,” Senate Leadership Fund President Steven Law said in a statement explaining the decision.
The decision comes less than a month after the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the Senate Republicans’ campaign arm, pulled $2.5 million in planned spending out of New Hampshire to direct toward other states, specifically Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Nevada.
At the time, an NRSC spokesman said Bolduc would be able to rely on other ad dollars being spent in the Granite State and that the committee was “glad to see Republican outside forces showing up in a big way in New Hampshire, with millions in spending pledged to take down Maggie Hassan in the final stretch.”
Given that New Hampshire was viewed as a top battleground for Republicans prior to Bolduc winning his primary, McConnell’s Senate Leadership Fund had reserved $23 million for the state ahead of the November election. Both the SLF and NRSC did not immediately pull their remaining ad buys after Bolduc advanced to the general election, instead waiting until polls began to show a growing divide between their candidate and Hassan.
Elected Republicans had stumped for more moderate candidates in the GOP primary, while former President Donald Trump threw his weight behind Bolduc, the eventual winner.
In response to the news of McConnell’s fund pulling its financial support, Bolduc told Breitbart News in an interview Saturday that he believes he has the momentum to beat Hassan with or without help from his party’s official campaign channels.
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“The momentum is great right now,” Bolduc told the outlet. “We were 15 points behind during the primary. We closed the gap to 7-5-3, and now we’re in a tie. The momentum is going our way because we’re campaigning the Granite State way — five events a day is my average out there on the ground — town halls, house parties, community events, you name it.”
“Now, I can’t lie — I need money,” he added. “But we’re gonna continue to move forward. We did it with less than $500,000 last time, and we did it by working hard and not counting on anybody except Granite Staters.”
