Don Bolduc, a retired US Army general and a proponent of the false narrative that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump, has won New Hampshire’s Republican primary election.
His chief opponent, state Senate president Chuck Morse, who was endorsed by Governor Chris Sununu and backed by more than $4.5m from Republican campaigns, has conceded to Mr Bolduc, and the Associated Press announced Mr Bolduc’s victory on 14 September.
Mr Bolduc will face incumbent Democratic Senator Maggie Hassan in November’s general election.
The far-right candidate has amplified baseless claims that the 2020 presidential election was marred by fraud, among a field of Republican candidates in state, local and federal elections who have stood by spurious legal arguments and conspiracy theories to reject the former president’s loss.
“I signed a letter with 120 other generals and admirals saying that Donald Trump won the election and, damn it, I stand by” that argument, he said during a debate last month.
He told The New Yorker last year that there was a “tremendous amount of fraud” in 2020 “and that “it’s been happening for a long time in this country,” suggesting that President Joe Biden and Democratic officials tried to “steal the presidency”.
Mr Bolduc told The New Yorker that the attack on the US Capitol on 6 January, 2021 marked a “complete failure of the political system” and said the pro-Trump mob should not have used violence, thoug he said the crowd “believed that their rights were violated” and “that they lost their voice”.
Mr Trump congratulated Mr Bolduc in a post on his Truth Social account on Wednesday morning.
Democratic officials have braced for Mr Bolduc’s victory but also predict he will serve as a weaker opponent to Ms Hassan, a first-term senator who won in 2016 by roughly 1,000 votes. New Hampshire is among a handful of likely swing states with vulnerable Democratic senators that the party hopes to keep in office to maintain control of Congress in midterm elections.
At least one Democratic group also intervened in an effort to oust Mr Morse from the race; the Senate Majority PAC – tied to Senate Majoritry Leader Chuck Schumer – supported adverts characterising Mr Morse as “sleazy” as part of the party’s controversial strategy of boosting extreme GOP hopefuls seen as more likely to lose a general election against a Democratic candidate.
”It’s been a long night [and] we’ve come up short,” Mr Morse said in a message on social media early on Wednesday. “I want to thank my supporters for all the blood, sweat [and] tears they poured into this team effort. I just called and wished all the best to [Mr Bolduc]. The focus this fall needs to be on defeating Maggie Hassan.”
Among more than 500 Republican nominees running for office across the US, roughly 200 deny the legitimacy of the 2020 election, according to one analysis.
Election-denying candidates also have advanced to November ballots in statewide races for positions that oversee election administration in more than half of the US, according to States United Democracy Center.
