Booker says GOP nominees too extreme to win in NH

Oct. 24—CONCORD — New Hampshire's all-Democratic congressional delegation will win Nov. 8 because they have records of accomplishment and their opponents are too extreme to get elected in a swing state, Sen. Cory Booker, D-New Jersey, said during an interview Monday.

Booker toured businesses in Londonderry and Derry with Sen. Maggie Hassan and Rep. Chris Pappas, and traveled to the New Hampshire Democratic Party's Nashua field office to campaign with Rep. Annie Kuster, all D-N.H.

"They are running against people who haven't tried to sugarcoat their extremism, they are kind of saying this is where the Republican Party should go in the future," Booker said.

"They say we are the face of the future of the party which is election denying, abortion banning and not believing in things like Medicare and Medicaid."

Booker, a two-term senator, ran for president in 2020 and dropped out a month before the first-in-the-nation primary here, citing an inability to compete financially for the nomination.

Hassan, Kuster and Pappas have also run grassroots campaigns in a state with voters that value person-to-person contact, he said.

"They also have a real good track record of success since this is one of the most productive congresses since LBJ," Booker maintained.

A Republican National Committee spokesman said it's Booker who is out of touch with what families and small businesses are struggling with, high inflation and chronic shortages of workforce and supply chains.

"Maggie Hassan bringing radical Cory Booker to New Hampshire is a perfect encapsulation of her misguided campaign, said Andrew Mahaleris. "You are the company you keep, and Hassan chooses out-of-touch coastal elites over Granite Staters every time."

Booker said he was surprised to learn that GOP primary voters in New Hampshire had rejected moderate alternatives to Senate nominee Don Bolduc and congressional hopefuls Karoline Leavitt and Bob Burns.

"It just doesn't sit well with the general public and is causing a lot of voters to just question the Republican Party and its extremism," Booker said.

National Democratic groups aired ads during the primary attacking Bolduc's primary opponent, Senate President Chuck Morse of Salem, and Keene Mayor George Hansel, who lost to Burns in the 2nd Congressional District primary.

Booker: Threat to Social Security is real

Senior citizens should be concerned about the future of Social Security with Bolduc and Leavitt in the past saying they were open to privatizing the system for younger Americans.

Bolduc has since said he'd oppose any privatization plan; Leavitt said she could support it only if offered to young people as they enter the workforce.

For more than a decade, this effort has failed to gain traction on Capitol Hill, but Booker said that could change.

"If the House falls to Republicans, we will see what we saw the last time (under a Democratic president), which was passing 60 bills to repeal the Affordable Care Act," Booker said.

It would take 60 votes in the Senate to break a filibuster and pass a Social Security privatization bill.

"The Senate will have to be the backstop unless they got rid of the filibuster but I don't think that will stop them from trying," Booker said.

"Fortunately, President Biden would be there to veto it."

MacKenzie Rhode, a Republican State Committee spokesperson, said Booker isn't qualified to make the closing argument for Democrats.

"Corey who? Local Dems relying on an underwhelming out-of-state senator who couldn't even make it on the New Hampshire (primary) ballot shows their desperation," she said.

"The NHGOP looks forward to expanding its State House majorities even with the onslaught of out of state dollars and no-name candidates flooding in to support their hopeless campaigns."

klandrigan@unionleader.com