After winning his G.O.P. Senate primary, Don Bolduc reversed himself on claims the 2020 election was stolen. His comments on a QAnon-aligned podcast were not so straightforward.
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This article is part of our Midterms 2022 Daily Briefing
Don Bolduc campaigning for his primary this month at an American Legion in Laconia, N.H. After he won, he played down his election denialism.
All through his primary, Don Bolduc, a far-right Senate candidate in New Hampshire, said the 2020 election was stolen. A day after his victory was called, he reversed course. But eight days after that?
He indicated on a podcast that he had not completely turned his back on the stolen-election movement, conveying that he found it unclear why his election-denial message had not been resonating with voters in the battleground state.
“The narrative that the election was stolen, it does not fly up here in New Hampshire for whatever reason,” Mr. Bolduc said in a Sept. 23 appearance on The Mel K Show, a podcast aligned with the QAnon conspiracy movement.
Then he renewed his false claim there had been fraud in the election.
“What does fly” in New Hampshire, Mr. Bolduc said, “is that there was significant fraud and it needs to be fixed.”
For about five minutes on the podcast, Mr. Bolduc attacked the expansion of mail-in voting during the pandemic and said voters in New Hampshire should be forced to present identification at the polls. He further stated his opposition to college students from out of state voting in New Hampshire.
Shortly after winning his primary, Mr. Bolduc struck a far different tone in a Fox News interview, saying, “I want to be definitive on this — the election was not stolen.”
“Elections have consequences, and, unfortunately, President Biden is the legitimate president of this country,” he said in the interview.
Mr. Bolduc’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday.
He is challenging Senator Maggie Hassan, whose underwhelming job approval ratings have emboldened Republicans in New England. The race could help determine whether Republicans gain control of the Senate in the November elections.
Source: nytimes.com
