MANCHESTER — A Republican red wave fell short Tuesday night — at least in New Hampshire — as Maggie Hassan sailed to reelection in the U.S. Senate.
Republicans viewed the first-term incumbent as one of a few vulnerable candidates to defeat in their quest to gain control of the Senate.
But just after 11 p.m. Tuesday night, it became clear that voters decided that Hassan will head back to Washington. In fact, New Hampshire reelected all three Democrat candidates, with Annie Kuster and Chris Pappas both retaining their seats in Congress.
“I promise you, Democrats, independents and Republicans, the people who voted for me and those who did not, that I will keep working every day to serve you faithfully, to listen to you and to work with you to address the challenges facing your families, our state and our country,” Hassan told cheering supporters in Manchester.
Across the Queen City, retired Army General Don Bolduc stood alongside his wife, Sharon, and conceded the race to Hassan.
“I’m honored to have had the opportunity to represent the Republican Party in the U.S. Senate race here in New Hampshire,” he said before directing his focus back on Hassan. “This is not a loss. We woke a lot of people up; hopefully, we put her on notice. And hopefully, she will do the right thing for Granite Staters.”
Things might have been different if the state’s most popular Republican — Gov. Chris Sununu — had decided to challenge Hassan, as GOP leaders hoped.
Sununu’s name recognition, coupled with the public’s positive opinion of him after the pandemic, made many believe he could unseat Hassan after she won her last election on razor-thin margins against Kelly Ayotte in 2018.
Despite national pleas from Senators like Ted Cruz, Mitch McConnell and Rick Scott, Sununu surprised his party when he announced his intentions to run for a fourth term as governor last year.
That opened the door for Bolduc, who has espoused conspiracy theories about vaccines and the 2020 presidential election, to earn the party’s nomination.
His road to election day was exceptionally long. He began campaigning two years ago, after unsuccessfully pursuing the Republican nomination to take on U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen in 2020.
Since then, he traversed the state hosting town hall-style events on his American Grand Strength tour.
On Monday he held his 83rd, and final town hall, in Exeter.
Despite his jumpstart on the campaign trail, he was not the favored candidate to pick off Hassan, with 10 Republicans vying for the party nomination, including Senate President Chuck Morse.
Sununu, and other moderate Republicans, feared that Bolduc’s campaign was too extreme to sway New Hampshire’s independent voters.
Along the campaign trail, he discussed privatizing Social Security and repeated claims that voters were bused into the state to vote illegally. He also repeated the right-wing urban legend that schools were providing litter boxes for students that identify as “furries.”
Hassan looked to capitalize on Bolduc’s extremes, highlighting his stance on abortion — a central theme of Democratic campaigns across the nation — in their final debate.
“Let’s talk about Don Bolduc’s extremism on this issue, how out of step it is with Granite Staters and how hard he’s trying to conceal his record. He has said that he would never vote against pro-life legislation in the U.S. Senate. He has said that we should ‘rejoice’ when Roe v. Wade was overturned,” Hassan said.
Hassan positioned herself as a bipartisan voice for New Hampshire on the trail. Ahead of Election Day, though, many polls showed the race at a statistical tie.
At his campaign event in Manchester, Bolduc started the night strong — reassuring voters they would see a Republican win in the early hours of the morning, before performing John Denver’s Take Me Home, Country Roads with a country band on stage.
Hours later, he greeted a much smaller, somber crowd to officially acknowledge his defeat.
In his concession speech, Bolduc urged his supporters to continue to hold elected officials accountable.
“We have created a rumble. We have created an idea that government should not tread on its people and that career politicians must change,” he said in Manchester. “We didn’t win today, but imagine if we continue to come together, if we join hands, if we decide that they work for us and we don’t work for them.”
“If we can do this even in losing we will win,” he said.
The Associated Press said it called the race for Hassan before midnight because she had outperformed her vote totals in key areas of the state compared to her win over Ayotte in 2016.
(Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.)