Don Bolduc takes donation from purveyor of racist 'birther' conspiracies

New Hampshire Republican Senate nominee Don Bolduc accepted a large donation on Saturday from Orly Taitz, a fellow conspiracy theorist who came to prominence in 2009 for her claims that former President Barack Obama was not born in the United States.

According to a report filed with the Federal Election Commission on Sunday, the Bolduc campaign accepted a $2,800 donation from Taitz, who is listed as “self employed” as a “dentist & lawyer.” The most an individual can donate to a general election campaign is $2,900. The progressive research group American Bridge 21st Century first noted the donation on Oct. 24.

Bolduc is challenging incumbent Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan in the November midterm election.

In 2009, Taitz began to spread racist and false claims that the Hawaiian-born president was actually born in Kenya and that his family had produced a fraudulent birth certificate. She filed a series of unsuccessful lawsuits trying to get Obama removed from office.

In its fall 2011 “Intelligence Report,” the Southern Poverty Law Center noted that Taitz was “often described as ‘Queen of the Birthers'” and had continued to make racist birther claims even after the White House produced Obama’s long-form birth certificate from Honolulu.

Taitz’s xenophobia and birtherism are not limited to Democratic candidates. She also pushed incorrect assertions during the 2016 primaries that Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Marco Rubio (R-FL) were ineligible for the presidency and not “natural born citizens.” Cruz was born in Canada to an American mother and a Cuban-born father; Rubio was born in Miami to two immigrants from Cuba.

In 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered Taitz to pay a $20,000 fine for filing a 2009 lawsuit deemed “frivolous” by U.S. District Judge Clay Land, a George W. Bush appointee.

“The Court finds that counsel’s conduct was willful and not merely negligent,” Land said. “It demonstrates bad faith on her part. As an attorney, she is deemed to have known better.”

Bolduc spokesperson Kate Constantini responded to a request for comment by dismissing the American Independent Foundation and did not address the Taitz donation.

Bolduc has also spread debunked conspiracy theories throughout his Senate campaign.

He falsely suggested earlier this month that the real women’s rights and women’s health issues facing voters were the “300% increase in miscarriages and stillbirths” since the introduction of the COVID-19 vaccines; no data has confirmed any increase in problems during pregnancy relating to immunization against the coronavirus.

Bolduc also repeatedly claimed prior to winning the nomination that former President Donald Trump was the real winner of the 2020 election and that election fraud was the only reason Joe Biden became president.

Just days after winning the nomination, Bolduc said he had been convinced that Biden was the legitimate president — though he has since waffled, saying at an Oct. 3 campaign event: “I can’t say that it was stolen or not. I don’t have enough information.”

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.