As the midterm election campaign closed in on its final week, candidates for U.S. Senate in New Hampshire described the choice facing voters in dire terms and sought support from out-of-state allies in a string of campaign stops over the weekend.
Republican Don Bolduc and incumbent Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan are locked in what polls indicate is a tightening race. For much of the campaign, the two have focused on a small handful of issues: Hassan has largely zeroed in on Bolduc’s opposition to abortion and embrace of false claims about the validity of the 2020 election outcome. Bolduc, meanwhile, has stressed economic issues, telling voters that Hassan needs to be held accountable for supporting the policies of President Biden, which he says have driven inflation over the past year.
In a town-hall style forum in Windham Saturday, Bolduc stuck to that script.
"We’ve got a compound fracture in our economy right now,” Bolduc said. “We have the highest inflation in 40 years. We have skyrocketing interest rates. Everything costs more."
Bolduc told the crowd he planned to take that message directly to Hassan during a Lincoln-Douglas style debate he proposed for the State House steps in the final days of the campaign.
"Shoulder to shoulder, coffee breath close, all Granite Staters out there, listening to what the truth is,” Bolduc said. “I've invited her.”
Hassan's campaign said it had yet to hear from the Bolduc campaign about any proposed debate. The two candidates are scheduled to meet in a WMUR-hosted debate later this week, and clashed during an NHPR debate last week.
Hassan, seeking her second term, appeared alongside First Lady Jill Biden Saturday, where the pair urged Democrats to vote in the upcoming midterm elections and painted a stark contrast between the agendas of their party and that of the GOP.
“I mean, so completely different,” Biden said during a stop in Portsmouth. “And what the Republicans are thinking about: it is just not fair.”
Hassan urged the crowd of volunteers to get organized in advance of Election Day.
“Every door you knock, every phone call you make, will make a real difference,” Hassan said. “Take it from somebody who won her race in 2016 by 1,017 votes. That’s what organizing does.”
"What you do on Nov. 8 won't just set the course of the future of New Hampshire,” Biden said. “You'll help decide the future of the country, as well."
In stops with voters this weekend, Bolduc stressed his independence and said he would not be beholden to Republican leaders but accountable only to New Hampshire. But he also campaigned alongside Sen. Rick Scott, the leader of the political action committee dedicated to electing Republican senators.
