Hassan: Bolduc biggest election denier in NH history
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Oct. 27—CONCORD — If elected, Republican Senate nominee Don Bolduc would be the most ardent denier of election results to win statewide office in New Hampshire history, Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., charged Wednesday.
Despite making past statements that raised questions about this election, Bolduc said he would accept the outcome on Nov. 8.
Hassan said Bolduc cannot be trusted and could challenge this race if he loses it.
"He believes that elections either go his way, or they are, by definition, stolen and should be overturned," Hassan said.
"We have simply not seen anything like this in a Senate race in New Hampshire history. Before any ballots have been counted, Don Bolduc is claiming that this election may be stolen."
During a radio talk show in Manchester before Hassan's latest claim, Bolduc said he had never said he would challenge the 2022 result.
"I am expecting to win but at the end of the day whatever the result I will accept (it) and I will congratulate Senator Hassan if she wins and I will pray she does the best she can for Granite Staters," Bolduc told the New Hampshire Today program on iHeart Radio with Chris Ryan.
Right after the 2020 election, Bolduc joined a group of generals who wrote that former President Donald Trump and not Joe Biden was the legitimate winner.
Soon after winning the Sept. 13 GOP primary, however, Bolduc said Biden won.
On Oct. 10, Bolduc told radio talk show host Jeff Kuhner there could be tampering in this election that discredits the outcome.
"How are they going to be able to explain the fact that we're either in a dead heat or we are edging ahead of these Democrats for all the right reasons — the economy, the out-of-control spending, lack of security on our borders — and all of a sudden, a late night or some sort of dump with ballots or some sort of dump with votes that come from machines, and the next thing you know, you wake up in the morning and the election has changed?
"That is still real," Bolduc said during this interview.
Bolduc: Hassan did same thing
On Wednesday, Bolduc charged that in 2016 Hassan had questioned the election in which Trump beat Democrat Hillary Clinton.
"I have to move forward. The 2020 election was decided by the electoral process on 6 January and President Biden is the president of the United States, end of statement," Bolduc said.
If elected, Bolduc said he would urge state lawmakers to get rid of election-day registration in New Hampshire and respond to concerns of many voters who "don't like" out-of-state college students being able to vote here.
"I would ask the state as a U.S. senator to look at the concerns of Granite Staters, so people don't feel disenfranchised," Bolduc said.
Hassan said while inflation tops the list of issues, this was a "remarkably important" one, because of the state's history of running fair elections.
"Look in the Granite State, we have the best citizen government in the country, some of the most informed voters in the country," Hassan said.
Hassan spoke to reporters at the West Street Ward House, a city-owned community center, with state Rep. Paul Bergeron, D-Nashua and Rep. Connie Lane, D-Concord and a 20-year observer of local elections.
"New Hampshire's elections are administered free of tampering and other nefarious schemes, and that is why Don Bolduc's dangerous lies about campaigns are so concerning," said Bergeron, the former Nashua city clerk and deputy clerk in Manchester.
A Bolduc spokeswoman said voters would reject Hassan's scare tactics.
"Senator Hassan is so scared about the results of the next election that she is obsessed with talking about the last one," Kate Constantini said in a statement.
"In less than two weeks, America gets to weigh in on the performance of the first half of the Biden administration and New Hampshire will do its part by sending one of his most reliable foot soldiers, Maggie Hassan, packing."
