Republican Senate candidate Gen. Don Bolduc on Tuesday crushed Democrat Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH) in the New Hampshire Senate debate.
The top moments included Gen. Bolduc highlighting Hassan’s votes to fuel inflation and her lack of congressional leadership as a 20 year career politician.
Hassan was put on the hot seat when Gen. Bolduc said the top issue in the Senate race is “inflation, inflation, inflation,” which he said was driven by bad energy policies the Democrats created by waging an ideological war on American energy.
“It is only going to get higher,” Gen. Bolduc said about inflation, noting the Democrats’ massive spending packages of which Hassan voted in the past two years. “We got to stop the spending,” he stated.
When the debate turned towards foreign policy, Gen Bolduc said President Joe Biden and Democrats’ foreign policy can be summed up in one word, “react.”
“There is no policy strategy,” he said. “It’s react,” he reiterated, referencing Biden’s recent failures to prevent the Ukrainian war and the deadly Afghan withdrawal that left 13 U.S. servicemembers dead.
“There is no leadership involved,” Gen. Bolduc added.
The Republican candidate also slammed Hassan as a 20-year politician and the lack of results she has produced.
“We got to get rid of career politicians. Granite Staters say, ‘number one problem is career politicians.’ Twenty-years, right there,” he said, pointing at Hassan in the room.
“Look at what has happened to New Hampshire: historic inflation, people are hurting, they can’t afford the necessities of life,” Gen. Bolduc continued.
“This is the consequences of a career politician who is in bed with special interests and lobbyists,” he said, noting he has not been in politics before but rather served as a brigadier general (one star general) in the United States military.
Gen. Bolduc is currently trailing Hassan in the polls. But Republican momentum could help the Republican defeat Hassan in one of the most contested Senate swing states in 2022.
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.