After last night

New Hampshire held its late party primaries yesterday. The only interesting races were on the Republican side and Democrats had a hand in two of them. In the Senate contest to pick a challenger to vulnerable incumbent Maggie Hassan, Don Bolduc faced off against Chuck Morse. Democrats supported Bolduc because he is the less viable candidate. With 87 percent of the vote tabulated, Bolduc leads Morse by about 1300 votes (1 percent of the vote).

Democrats also supported Robert Burns for the Republican endorsement in New Hampshire’s Second District. Again, Democrats supported Burns. With 83 percent of the vote tabulated, Burns leads his closest opponent by about 1,000 votes (2 percent of the vote).

Neither of the two races has yet been called [UPDATE: RealClearPolitics shows that the Senate primary contest has been called for Bolduc], but the writing appears to be on the wall. The Washington Post’s Annie Linskey touched on these races in a September 12 story that Jewish World Review posted here in accessible form. Linskey noted:

As primary season nears its Tuesday endpoint, Democrats are giving the strategy one more try in New Hampshire, in two congressional races. In the Republican Senate primary, Senate Majority PAC, a group aligned with Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), is spending $3.2 million on ads that effectively enhance the candidacy in the GOP primary of retired Gen. Don Bolduc, by portraying his more moderate rival, state Senate President Chuck Morse, who has trailed in GOP primary polls to Bolduc, as beholden to the party establishment.

Bolduc has said he “concurred” with Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was rigged and signed a letter along with other retired military leaders claiming without evidence that the FBI and Supreme Court ignored “election irregularities” in 2020. In a statement, Senate Majority PAC spokeswoman Veronica Yoo said the spending was a response to Morse’s attacks on TV against Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), which the group “won’t sit idly by” and tolerate.

In New Hampshire’s 2nd Congressional District, where Rep. Annie Kuster (D) is seeking reelection, a group called Democrats Serve is directing about $100,000 into TV commercials accentuating the conservative credentials of Robert Burns, an otherwise poorly-funded Republican House candidate who acknowledges that President Biden won but has claimed that “a ton” of other unspecified elections were “stolen” in 2020.

The Democrats’ support of Bolduc and Burns belies the ravings of Joe Biden about “fascism” and his alleged support of “democracy.” Here we have the president’s party interfering in the deliberations of the opposing party for purely partisan advantage. The alleged threat of “fascism” must not be so great that the Democrats won’t toy with it as it suits their purposes. If Republicans did the same, we would hear incessantly from Biden, the Democrats and the Democrats’ media adjunct that it presents a threat to “democracy.”

In New Hampshire’s First District primary, the AP has called the race for former Trump press staffer Karoline Leavitt. Age 25, Leavitt “is only the second member of Generation Z to win a House primary and the first Republican,” according to the NPR story on the race. Leavitt’s closest opponent was Matt Mowers, who lost to incumbent Democrat Chris Pappas in 2020. Pappas defeated Mowers by 20,000 votes (5 points) in 2020. This time around Leavitt will face of against against Pappas in what should be an uphill race that might be winnable.

Primary results via WMUR News 9 (Manchester).

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