Don Bolduc, the Republican nominee for Senate in New Hampshire, is trailing in the polls and has been making news lately for saying, out loud, that the question of abortion “belongs to the state. It belongs to these gentlemen right here, who are state legislators representing you. That is the best way I think, as a man, that women get the best voice. At the state level, not at the federal level. It’s really Senator [Maggie] Hassan that doesn’t understand this.”
Bolduc has insisted as well that privatizing Medicare “is hugely important,” and said that he often talks about how important it is to “reform” Medicare and Medicaid, “Getting government out of it, getting government money with strings attached out of it.”
He’s also, on and off, adhered, to the Big Lie. “I signed a letter with 120 other generals and admirals saying that Donald Trump won the election and, damn it, I stand by” it, he said at a debate over the summer. He did tell Fox News, after he won that primary, that he changed his mind and had “come to the conclusion … the election was not stolen.” As we’ll see, that was a short-lived epiphany.
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Bolduc will very likely lose the general election because of his misogyny, extremism, and embrace of crackpot conspiracy theories. But it’s becoming increasingly clear that if (or when) he loses, Bolduc will get dangerous, because along with the majority of Republicans on the ballot who have embraced the Big Lie, he is sowing the seeds for denying the results of this election, his own.
He gave a radio interview in New Hampshire on Monday, telling host Jeff Kuhner all about it. All of the issues with the 2020 balloting, he said, could steal the election from him in 2022. “And as long as we have this type of fraud and irregularities that are susceptible to our system across this country, we are going to be in big trouble,” Bolduc said. “So, it’s less about whether we focus on 2020 stolen election and how we focus on how we’re going to win in 2022 and don’t let it happen.”
He continued, “How are they going to be able to explain the fact that we’re either in a dead heat or we are edging ahead of these Democrats for all the right reasons—the economy, the out-of-control spending, lack of security on our borders—and all of a sudden, a late night or some sort of dump with ballots or some sort of dump with votes that come from machines, and the next thing you know, you wake up in the morning and the election has changed? That is still real.”
So the minute Bolduc loses—the minute any of those 100s of Republicans running this cycle lose—they’ll be going full-on Trump and yelling “fraud.” Like Mike Erickson, who is running for a U.S. Washington state House seat in Oregon. He’s already threatening to sue if he loses, because a television ad that highlights his 2016 arrest and conviction for a DUI. There are Republican candidates up and down the ballot currently plotting their strategies for denying the results of this November’s election, should they lose, and making it a dry run for what they’ll do in 2024.
This is very dangerous for the nation’s future, as David Neiwert wrote here last week, quoting University of Minnesota politics professor Larry Jacobs on election denialism. “It is a disease that is spreading through our political process, and its implications are very profound,” Jacobs said. “This is no longer about Donald Trump. This is about the entire electoral system and what constitutes legitimate elections. All of that is now up in the air.”
“This is precisely the kind of crisis of democracy that has always been an essential preface to the rise of fascism, historically speaking,” Neiwert commented. The critical way to avoid that is to win at that ballot box, and to do so at every level. But particularly with candidates for attorney general, secretary of state, and state supreme courts.
Daily Kos has endorsed 17 Democrats for those seats in eight critical states. The single most powerful thing we can do to stop Trump from stealing 2024 is to elect these Democrats to those key positions downballot.
Donald Trump and his MAGA allies came close to overthrowing our democracy on January 6, and they will try again if they win in 2022. The best thing you can do is to help get out the Democratic vote for the midterms, and we need everyone to do what they can. Click here to find all the volunteer opportunities available.
Please donate $1 to each of these Daily Kos-endorsed Democrats for attorney general, secretary of state, and state supreme court to stop MAGA election deniers from stealing the 2024 election.
After an eruption of even more scandals among Republican Senate candidates, FiveThirtyEight’s Nathaniel Rakich returns to The Downballot to discuss the effect these sorts of scandals can have on competitive races; whether Democrats stand a chance to keep the House; and the different ways pollsters create likely voter models.