Maggie Hassan Suggests Half of Granite Staters Not Concerned About Inflation 

Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH) suggested Monday that half of Granite Staters are not overly concerned about inflation.

During an NPR interview that aired Monday, Hassan claimed women do not want to converse about inflation and prefer to change the conversation to abortion, the sixth most important midterm issue.

“You know, as I started to talk with women about inflation, they all change the subject to abortion. They also said to me, but if my fundamental rights are gone, that’s much harder to get back,” she said.

A recent Heritage Foundation study shows wages for American families are down $6,000 after adjusting for inflation, an $1,800 increase from September.

Hassan’s antidotal observation contradicts data. Polling shows the number one issue among Granite Staters is inflation. Women make up just over half of New Hampshire’s population.

Moreover, additional polling shows women voters have shifted their support behind Republicans in large part due to the record-high inflation and specifically soaring costs at the grocery store. Eighty percent of mothers say they are the primary grocery shopper for the household, according to Pew Research Center analysis.

When she was pressed on why inflation persists under Democrat rule, Hassan responded by blaming the Biden administration. “The administration was too slow to recognize the long-term reality of inflation, and they took too long to react to it,” she said.

Hassan has given inconsistent excuses for why soaring costs persist. She blamed the pandemic and the Ukraine war on Thursday. Two days earlier, she claimed inflation was due to corporate greed. In Monday’s interview, she blamed the administration.

Hassan, who was the clear frontrunner, is now under pressure from Republican Senate challenger Gen. Don Bolduc, who is statistically tied with the incumbent. A Suffolk University/Boston Globe poll three weeks ago showed Hassan with a nine point lead (50-41 percent). That lead was cut to seven points (52-45 percent) in an October 12 AARP poll. Both polls showed Hassan with majority support.

On Friday, Hassan only led by two points (49-47 percent), well within the four point margin of error. Four percent remain undecided. Notably, Hassan has sunk to under 50 percent support, a key indicator of Gen. Bolduc’s momentum against the incumbent.

Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.