Ayotte will back Trump in general election
Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.), who for months has kept her distance from Donald Trump as she faces a tough reelection fight, says she will support the businessman in the general election.
“As she’s said from the beginning, Kelly plans to support the nominee,” Liz Johnson, Ayotte’s spokeswoman, told WMUR on Wednesday.
{mosads}Ayotte had given herself wiggle room before Trump became the presumptive GOP presidential nominee with a big win in Indiana’s primary Tuesday night.
Johnson told WMUR in March that her boss “intends to support the Republican nominee. However, she would like to see how the process plays out.”
Ayotte has said for months that she planned to support the party’s general election nominee, but she also taken steps to distance herself from Trump.
She is one of five Senate Republican incumbents facing difficult reelection battles in states President Obama carried in 2008 and 2012.
In December, she, along with GOP leaders in Congress, panned Trump’s proposal to temporarily bar non-citizen Muslims from entering the country.
“I do not believe that there should be a religious test in terms of how we decide who’s coming to our country,” she said at the time. “There needs to be a factual, risk-based assessment. We’ve not had a religious test for this and that certainly seems inconsistent with the First Amendment to me.”
Ayotte’s Democratic opponent, New Hampshire Gov. Maggie Hassan, pounced right away.
“Kelly Ayotte has repeatedly said that she’ll put her political party first by supporting Donald Trump if he is the nominee, and now it is time for Ayotte to just do what she’s been preparing to do for weeks and make her support for Trump official,” said Aaron Jacobs, Hassan’s communications director.
Jacobs said Ayotte and Trump “are clearly in agreement when it comes to critical issues such as their desire to defund Planned Parenthood, undermine Roe v. Wade, and obstruct the Supreme Court confirmation process.”
Trump, however, has struck a softer tone on Planned Parenthood than some other Republicans. In March, he praised its “very good work for millions of women,” though he also threatened to cut its funding if it continues to provide abortion services.
He won an overwhelming victory in the New Hampshire presidential primary earlier this year.
Former New Hampshire Sen. Judd Gregg, a Republican, said last week that he would back Trump as the nominee but not Ted Cruz, who was in second place behind Trump before ending his presidential campaign Tuesday.
“I would never vote for Ted Cruz,” Gregg, a columnist for The Hill, told WMUR. “I’d write in Paul Ryan or someone before I’d vote for Ted Cruz.”
Jordain Carney contributed.
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