GOP New Hampshire Senate nominee Bolduc is back to lying about fraud in the 2020 election

Two days after winning the primary last week, New Hampshire Republican Senate nominee Don Bolduc finally admitted that President Joe Biden was the legitimate winner of the 2020 election. Now he’s back to spreading false conspiracy theories about widespread fraud.

Bolduc, a far-right candidate and retired Army brigadier general, spent much of the time between Biden’s 2021 inauguration and last Tuesday’s GOP primary promoting the lie that former President Donald Trump won the election in 2020.

Bolduc signed an open letter in May 2021 asserting widespread fraud in 2020 elections and questioning Biden’s victory. “Without fair and honest elections that accurately reflect the ‘will of the people’ our Constitutional Republic is lost,” the letter reads. “The FBI and Supreme Court must act swiftly when election irregularities are surfaced and not ignore them as was done in 2020.”

During his primary campaign, Bolduc repeatedly pointed to that letter, saying as recently as Aug. 14, “I signed a letter with 120 other generals and admirals saying that Trump won the election and damn it, I stand by my letter.”

But two days after becoming the nominee, Bolduc told Fox News that Biden “is the legitimate president of this country.”

While continuing to baselessly assert that there was fraud in the election, Bolduc claimed to have changed his mind on how much, saying: “So, you know, we, you know, live and learn, right? And I’ve done a lot of research on this and I’ve spent the past couple of weeks talking to Granite Staters all over the state, from, you know, every party. And I’ve come to the conclusion, and I want to be definitive on this: The election was not stolen.”

In an appearance on WSMN radio on Monday, Bolduc was asked about his recent flip-flop on Biden’s comfortable popular and Electoral College victories.

This time he did not say that Biden won.

“Here’s the deal. Yes, I believe there was a significant amount of fraud, and I have said that over and over again,” Bolduc said, without pointing to evidence beyond saying that “people don’t trust” New Hampshire’s voting machines, vote by mail, the state’s voter ID laws, college student voting, and same-day registration. “I have campaigned across this state. There is a wide variety of views on the 2020 election, but there is a consistent belief across the board that there is fraud.”

There is no evidence of widespread voter fraud in New Hampshire or nationally during the 2020 general election.

A November 2021 New Hampshire Business Review article titled “Claims of widespread voter fraud in New Hampshire lack any specific examples” noted that Bolduc said he could not cite any specific evidence of fraud, repeating only, “I think there was a tremendous amount of fraud across this country and in every state.”

New Hampshire Secretary of State Bill Gardner, who served for more than four decades under Democratic and Republican governors, was quoted in the same story, “I don’t have one example to give you where a person won an election in this state who should not have won it.”

Bolduc is running to oust first-term Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan in November.

An Emerson College-WHDH poll of likely voters conducted on Sept. 14-15 on Friday showed Hassan ahead 51%-40% in what is expected to be a competitive race.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.