Sen. Maggie Hassan’s (D-NH) commanding lead over Republican challenger Don Bolduc is prompting the National Republican Senatorial Committee to cancel nearly $3 million in scheduled ad buys in the state.
Hassan leads Bolduc by 6.6 percentage points in the RealClearPolitics polling average, while FiveThirtyEight shows her up a full 8 points. That gap was as small as 1 point in a University of New Hampshire poll this past spring.
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The NRSC had originally partnered with Bolduc on a fall campaign, but NRSC Communications Director Chris Hartline suggested that the decision to pull the ads was made due to the millions already committed to supporting Bolduc by outside GOP groups.
“We’re 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,” he said in a statement to Politico.
Kevin Donohoe, a Hassan spokesman, also acknowledged that “there is still a ton of GOP spending against Senator Hassan.”
The NRSC originally bought $9 million in airtime in the state, and AdImpact shows the group backed out of $2.7 million of the remaining ads. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s Senate Leadership Fund continues to hold a $23 million buy supporting Bolduc.
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Republicans now hold 50 seats in the Senate. Republican officials previously told the Washington Examiner that they are confident they can win the Arizona, Nevada, and Georgia races, but would need to hold Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Ohio, Florida, and North Carolina to secure a Senate majority for the latter half of President Joe Biden’s term in office.
