Nikki Haley adds controversial former U.S. Senate candidate to campaign team

Don Bolduc, a retired Army general and former U.S. Senate candidate, is the new chair for Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley’s New Hampshire campaign, the Haley campaign announced Tuesday morning.

Bolduc made national headlines during his 2022 Senate campaign for his surprise primary victory over veteran New Hampshire politician Chuck Morse and for his controversial views on COVID-19 and the 2020 election.

Bolduc is a former brigadier general who received two Purple Hearts during his service in Afghanistan and was an earlier supporter of former President Donald Trump, the front-runner in the 2024 GOP presidential race. Trump endorsed Bolduc in his Senate race, as did Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Bolduc called into question the integrity of the 2020 presidential election, but later walked back his position, announcing two days after winning the 2022 Republican primary that “the (2020 presidential) election was not stolen.” But he continued to assert that significant fraud occurred.

Trump slammed him for claiming Biden won the election, saying that Bolduc was “a strong and proud ‘Election Denier,’ a big reason that he won the Nomination, but he then disavowed.”

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On COVID-19, Bolduc supported a conspiracy theory that Bill Gates was inserting microchips in the vaccines, causing a group of New Hampshire medical professionals to publicly request that Bolduc stop spreading misinformation. He also claimed that wearing masks as a way to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 would “cause more problems than they solve.”

New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, a Republican who enjoys one of the nation’s highest approval ratings, spoke out against Bolduc during the Republican primary, saying he was “not a serious candidate, he’s really not, and if he were the GOP nominee I have no doubt we would have a much harder time.” But after Bolduc won the primary, Sununu endorsed him in the general election against incumbent Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan, citing a “variety of issues” leading to his decision.

Haley has acknowledged that Biden won the 2020 election, telling The Wall Street Journal in 2021 that “there was fraud in the election, but I don’t think that the numbers were so big that it swayed the vote in the wrong direction.” She has also consistently praised the COVID-19 vaccines and encouraged the U.S. to lead out in the global vaccination campaign.

Bolduc’s wife, Sharon, was announced Tuesday as the co-chair for Women for Nikki New Hampshire.

Haley will be campaigning in New Hampshire this week, including a Wednesday town hall with Moms for Liberty.

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