New Hampshire GOP Senate nominee Don Bolduc on Sunday criticized Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) for her focus on the issue of abortion.
“She just wants to hang on with dear life,” Buldoc said in an interview with New Hampshire television station WMUR. “Well, guess what? Your views are not consistent with the average Granite Stater, number one. Number two, get over it. This is about the economy, fiscal responsibility, and the safety and security of this nation.”
Bolduc, a retired Army brigadier general, is hoping to deny Hassan a second term in November’s midterm elections. A GOP victory there would increase the odds of the party’s takeover of the Senate.
The right-wing candidate was not the preferred choice of establishment Republicans to take on Hassan. He holds a wide variety of extreme beliefs: He wants to eliminate both the FBI and the Department of Education, backed former President Donald Trump’s lies about the 2020 election and called GOP Gov. Chris Sununu a “Chinese Communist sympathizer.”
But Buldoc is trying to walk a fine line on abortion, a hot-button issue motivating voters across the country. He told WMUR that legislation proposed by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) banning abortion after 15 weeks is “misguided,” adding that the “federal government is way too much into our business.”
A ban on abortion after 24 weeks was enacted in New Hampshire earlier this year. It was signed into law by Sununu.
Hassan’s campaign responded on Monday with a digital ad that highlighted Buldoc’s comments urging people to “rejoice” after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade earlier this year.
“Don Bolduc thinks New Hampshire women should just ‘get over’ an attack on our fundamental freedoms,” Hassan spokesperson Sydney Petersen said in a statement. “We’re not going to get over it — but we are already over Don Bolduc. Whether it’s calling for people to ‘rejoice’ after Roe was overturned or telling Granite Staters to ‘get over’ a nationwide abortion ban, Don Bolduc could not be more out of touch with Granite Staters.”