Chris Lange, FISM News
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The primary season wraps up today with elections in New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. Conservative GOP candidates will test the party’s long-term strategies while Democrats are increasingly buoyed by a sense of growing momentum behind their party ahead of the November general election, now just eight weeks away.
There has been a great deal of handwringing in this election cycle among some Republicans who have watched Trump-backed candidates secure their party’s nomination in several key states. Many have begun to question whether the GOP should have made more of an effort to prop up moderate candidates who might stand a better chance of winning in the midterms.
Establishment Republicans had been banking on New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu to help the party retake the Senate, and his announcement that he would instead seek a fourth term as governor came as a blow for some party officials. Now they fear that Trump ally Don Bolduc could be chosen to square off against Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan in November. Bolduc has been outspoken in his support of Trump’s claims of election fraud in 2020 and has been labeled a “conspiracy theorist” by Sununu, issues that some analysts think will sour moderates and independents in the midterms.
New Hampshire is one of seven key battleground states, along with Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin that analysts believe will determine control of the 100-seat Senate. Biden carried New Hampshire by seven points, though some analysts still believed it was ripe for the picking.
The New Hampshire race underscores these fissures within the GOP between establishment conservatives and Trump allies. At the same time, Democratic moderates and the party’s progressive wing appear to have set aside their differences, at least for the time being. Those on the left are trying to put up a united front in hopes that recent legislative victories, lowering fuel costs, and the emergence of federal abortion rights, will cause voters to forget about rising inflation, the Afghanistan debacle, an open border, and a myriad of other controversies that have marred the first half of Biden’s presidency when they go to the polls in November.
Some Democratic groups have sponsored primary ads promoting Bolduc, predicting, like some Republicans, that he’ll make an easier November opponent for Hassan. Throughout this year’s election cycle, Democratic-aligned organizations have been backing pro-Trump candidates in key races around the country, though some party members argue that the strategy could backfire.
Elsewhere in New Hampshire’s 2nd Congressional District, pro-Trump congressional candidate Bob Burns is competing for the nomination to square off with five-term incumbent Democratic Rep. Annie Kuster in the general election.
In New Hampshire’s First District, 10 Republicans are vying for the nomination to take on incumbent Democrat Chris Pappas, who is running unopposed. The district has flipped five times in seven years.
Meanwhile, Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee faces four Democratic challengers today as he seeks his first full term in office. McKee, a former lieutenant governor for the state, replaced Gov. Gina Raimondo when she was tapped to be the Biden administration’s U.S. commerce secretary.
Republicans are also eyeing Rhode Island’s 2nd Congressional District seat, which has been held by Democrats for over three decades. With the announcement of U.S. Rep. Jim Langevin’s retirement in January, the GOP believes that now is their best chance to flip it.
Though Delaware’s single statewide primary race appears to have drawn the short end of the stick in terms of garnering much of the spotlight amid the pre-midterm frenzy, it is not without some intrigue of its own.
Democratic incumbent state auditor Kathy McGuiness is fighting to keep her job after being indicted on felony theft and official misconduct charges stemming from alleged efforts to conceal a state contract with a campaign group. She faces a challenge by lawyer and accountant Lydia York, who is backed by the Democratic party in a rare abandonment of an incumbent.
McGuiness has denied any wrongdoing, saying that she is a victim of political persecution.
Trump-backed candidates have enjoyed great success throughout the primaries, thanks, in part, to Democratic voters who crossed party lines to ensure their victories. Some Republicans fear that while these candidates might be favored by the party’s base, they likely lack the broad appeal needed to win over voters in the general election in battleground states. Democrats are banking on this as President Biden doubles down on his efforts to paint so-called “MAGA Republicans” as the greatest threat to the nation’s democracy.
Republicans, who have focused their election-year message on inflation, crime, education, and the border crisis, had for some time been predicting that they would flip both the House and Senate in November, but cracks in the veneer of self-confidence began to surface in recent weeks, particularly with Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell’s recent acknowledgment that the GOP will be lucky to even take the House in November, citing a dearth in “candidate quality.”
This report was informed in part by Associated Press, Reuters, and CBS reports.