Five takeaways from the New Hampshire Senate debate

Republican Senate hopeful Don Bolduc took jabs at Sen. Maggie Hassan’s (D-N.H.) record while Hassan sought to project bipartisan bona fides in the second and likely final debate of the New Hampshire Senate race.

The debate, which was moderated by hosts from New Hampshire Public Radio and the New Hampshire Bulletin, touched on a range of topics, from inflation to abortion to the 2020 election and beyond. 

Bolduc projected himself as a political outsider while Hassan defended her track record in Congress. The debate came less than two weeks before voters will weigh in on a race that has tightened considerably in recent weeks.

Here are five takeaways from the second New Hampshire Senate race debate:

Bolduc comes out swinging 

The debate was a mostly civil affair — with a few heated exchanges — but that didn’t mean Bolduc was unwilling to take jabs at the first-term senator as recent polling has shown the race tightening up between the two.

“I have been to every town and city in this state, and Granite Staters are hurting. They’re making choices between heating and eating. Retirees are going back to work. Interest rates have doubled,” Bolduc said during the debate. 

“What does that mean? It means that a $5,000 home two years ago, the mortgage would be $1,700. Today, that mortgage is now $2,700. Everything has doubled. Oil, gas, food, everything. And it’s her fault. Her votes have driven this, and that’s the problem we have,” he said of Hassan. 

Bolduc spent much of the debate slamming Hassan’s voting record and at one point accused her of lying about his views on abortion.

In one of the more contentious moments of the debate, Hassan referred viewers to videos of Bolduc on her website and the retired Army general interjected that the videos had been “tampered with.”

Hassan stakes out bipartisan positions

Hassan repeatedly described herself during the debate as a senator willing to work with both parties, including touting being ranked as the most bipartisan by The Lugar Center earlier this year. 

“I’m proud of having been ranked the most bipartisan senator in the country because I’ve really focused on how you find common ground on any number of wide range of issues,” she said during the debate.

She voiced her support for a change to the filibuster, a legislative rule that de-facto requires 60 votes to pass most pieces of legislation in the Senate. Getting rid of the filibuster has been a hot-button issue among many Democrats, but several moderates — including Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) and Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) — have defended the current rule. 

Hassan said the filibuster should remain in place but return to being a so-called talking filibuster.

Hassan also sought to distance herself from members of her party on issues like Title 42 and border security. 

“They need more personnel. They may need more technology, and in some cases, they need more physical barriers. And that’s why I have pushed back hard against the administration’s plan to lift this Title 42 prematurely because security has to be our priority,” she said.

Bolduc doubles down on election claims

Bolduc, a retired Army general, aligned himself with former President Trump in the primary and pushed unfounded claims questioning the legitimacy of the 2020 election. Then he quickly reversed course after winning the primary and said while there was fraud in the election, it had not been stolen.

But during the debate, Bolduc doubled down on questioning the integrity of New Hampshire’s elections. 

“I’m the only one sitting here who’s been [in] every town and city in this state over two years, and I believe Granite Staters when they say they don’t like the fact that college students that aren’t residents here can vote. They don’t like the fact that they can’t trust a mail in-ballot system,” he said.

He later added, “I’ve admitted that I got it wrong on the 2020 election. [Hassan] hasn’t admitted that she was a 2016 election denier. But she was. So this difference, fundamental differences, I account, right? She does not. I believe we have integrity issues in our elections. She denies it and wants to federalize it and make it more problematic.” 

Hassan seeks to defend her record

Hassan spent much of the debate beating back attacks from Bolduc on her record in Congress.

At one point, she was asked about her support for a gas tax holiday and why it hadn’t picked up momentum among her colleagues. Hassan was quick to blame Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), saying “Mitch McConnell blocked it at about the same time that Republicans in New Hampshire blocked the suspension of the state gas tax.”

She was also asked about the Trump-era Title 42 policy that allowed officials turn away immigrants at the border during the COVID-19 pandemic, a policy she’s supported. 

Asked how she would respond to criticism that the policy was racist, she said that “We have to have a secure border so that we can run an asylum adjudication system that honors our values, but the first job of government is to keep people safe, and right now we don’t have enough Customs Border Patrol agents at the border.”

No mention of Trump or Biden

There was no mention of either former President Trump or President Biden from either of the candidates in a state where voters and politicians alike pride themselves on independence.

Hassan has reason to avoid ties to Biden giving persistent issues like inflation and his underwater approval ratings.

Meanwhile, while Bolduc has shown himself to be aligned with Trump, invoking him in an already competitive race could have turned off independent or more moderate voters. Any lingering baggage from Trump or the numerous probes he’s found himself embroiled in could have also complicated things for Bolduc.

But that doesn’t mean that neither Trump nor Biden will be on the minds of voters in the election, or that voters might not see the election as a referendum of the president’s party.