The top Republican super PAC working to take back the Senate is withdrawing their final two weeks of ads in New Hampshire, according to a spokesman for the group, effectively giving up on Republican Senate nominee Don Bolduc’s bid to unseat Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan.
The Senate Leadership Fund is cutting $5.6 million in ads they had planned to air in the state during the final two weeks, the spokesman said.
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SLF is affiliated with Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and has been the largest TV and digital advertiser this fall in six of the 10 states deemed most likely to flip by CNN – Georgia, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio and Wisconsin.
But now the group will be moving the planned spending out of New Hampshire, said Steven Law, the president of the super PAC.
“As the cycle comes to a close, we are shifting resources to where they can be most effective to achieve our ultimate goal: winning the majority,” he said.
As Democrats headed into the midterm elections, Hassan was widely seen as one of the most vulnerable Senate incumbents in the country. But Republicans were unable to get New Hampshire Senate President Chuck Morse through the primary as Bolduc unexpectedly won the party’s Senate nomination.
Bolduc, who was widely seen as a less viable nominee among top Republicans in Washington, DC, and New Hampshire, has since tried to back away from positions he took during the primary, including falsehoods around the 2020 election. But his general election campaign has not eased worries among top Republican skepticism.
Bolduc is effectively now on his own in New Hampshire. The last SLF ads in the state will run on October 25, the group’s spokesman said.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee pulled over $2.5 million in planned spending out of New Hampshire earlier this month, diverting the money to other target states.
Chris Hartline, a spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said at the time they were “glad to see Republican outside forces showing up in a big way in New Hampshire, with millions in spending pledged to take down Maggie Hassan in the final stretch.”