Burns wins GOP nod in New Hampshire, teeing up race against Kuster

Hillsborough County Treasurer Robert Burns is projected to clinch the Republican nomination to represent New Hampshire’s 2nd Congressional District, teeing up a general election fight against Rep. Ann Kuster (D-N.H.).

The Associated Press called the race on Wednesday at 12:03 p.m.

In winning the nomination, Burns defeated Keene, N.H., Mayor George Hansel, a key victory for a candidate who sought to cast himself as a staunch conservative and ally of former President Trump.

Burns entered the race over a year ago, while Hansel jumped into the primary in May. Despite Burns’s head start, he was drastically outraised; Hansel managed to pull in some $377,000 – roughly twice as much as Burns raised.

Throughout the primary, Hansel cast himself as the stronger general election candidate, touting his pro abortion rights stance and hitting Kuster over pocketbook issues like inflation.

Burns, meanwhile, held a firmly anti-abortion position and sought to tie himself to Trump, though the former president did not endorse in the primary.

Seeing Burns as the weaker general election opponent, Democrats rushed to boost him in the primary. One outside group called Democrats Serve PAC spent more than half a million dollars on advertisements highlighting Burns’s conservative credentials, following a strategy that Democrats have used elsewhere with mixed results.

Kuster won her last reelection bid by a roughly 10-point margin, though she’s still considered vulnerable this year. The Cook Political Report, a nonpartisan election handicapper, currently puts the race for New Hampshire’s 2nd District in its “toss-up” column.