Six years after she bested then-incumbent senator Kelly Ayotte by just 1,017 votes, New Hampshire Senator Maggie Hassan’s bid for a second term is shaping up to be equally close.
Ms Hassan is running for re-election against Don Bolduc, a retired US Army general who shot to stardom among conservatives by parroting the lies former president Donald Trump frequently tells about the conduct of the 2020 election. He has also promoted hoax claims about children being permitted to relieve themselves in litter boxes by school officials who indulge their alleged desire to “identify as” cats.
Nonetheless, the former Granite State governor appears to have a far closer race on her hands than she did earlier this year after Mr Bolduc won the GOP primary.
According to the University of New Hampshire Survey Centre’s Granite State Poll, the eight-point lead Ms Hassan held against Mr Bolduc in September has evaporated, leaving her just two per cent ahead of the ex-military officer by a margin of 50 per cent to 48 per cent.
The UNH survey found that Ms Hassan also holds a two per cent lead among independent voters, with 47 per cent of respondents saying they’ll support her on Tuesday, 45 per cent reporting support for Mr Bolduc, and another five per cent pledging support for Libertarian Party candidate Jeremy Kauffman.
In the Granite State’s First Congressional District, the race between incumbent Democratic Representative Chris Pappas and ex-Trump White House aide Karoline Leavitt is even closer than the senate contest, with Mr Pappas holding a single-point lead over Ms Leavitt.
If Ms Hassan ultimately fails in her re-election bid, her loss could doom Democrats’ hopes of retaining control of the Senate for the remaining two years of President Joe Biden’s term. Democrats must retain every single seat they currenty hold in the evenly-split chamber to hold their majority when the 118th Congress convenes on 3 January 2023.
