Can Ex-Democrat Tulsi Gabbard Bail Out This Election Denier?

Don’t mind the polls or the millions of dollars in ad buys being pulled from the Granite State's airwaves. And pay no attention to the massive fundraising advantage held by Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan, for help is on the way for Republicans in New Hampshire’s messy Senate race.

Former Hawaii congresswoman and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate—and now, former Democrat—Tulsi Gabbard will be stumping alongside floundering GOP Senate nominee Don Bolduc.

Gabbard entering the fray may provide a spark of novelty to the Bolduc campaign, but her seventh place finish in the 2020 New Hampshire primary and relatively niche status as a political celebrity on the right likely won’t be enough to move the needle among the group of voters Republicans need the most.

“Most independents up here don’t know who Tulsi Gabbard is,” Dante Scala, a political science professor at the University of New Hampshire, told The Daily Beast. “I think it’s more about trying to stoke base voter enthusiasm as opposed to winning over independents.”

The retired congresswoman announced her plans to leave the party in a video she tweeted on Tuesday—which was also part of her podcast launch—saying the Democrats are “now under the complete control of an elitist cabal of warmongers driven by cowardly wokeness, who divide us by racializing every issue and stoke anti-white racism.”

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A recently departed Democrat who finished between businessmen Tom Steyer and Andrew Yang in the last presidential primary isn’t exactly the type of bold-faced nameNew Hampshire Republicans imagined, either. After all, just this week Sens. Rick Scott (FL) and Tom Cotton (AR) flew in to Georgia to help boost scandal-plagued GOP nominee Herschel Walker.

In fact, rather than give Bolduc a hand, Senate Republicans’ main campaign arm pulled its ads from the Granite State race last week, and Hassan’s lead has grown to an average of 7.8 points, according to FiveThirtyEight’s rolling average.

Meanwhile, Republican Gov. Chris Sununu has a double-digit lead over his opponent.

“I guess we’re pulling out all the stops here,” a high ranking New Hampshire Republican told The Daily Beast with a chuckle. “It’s gonna be a real test of party unity.”

Scala noted that if a voter does know who Gabbard is, they likely follow political news quite closely, which leaves a slim statistical chance that this hypothetical voter isn’t already sorted into an ideological camp.

“I understand she’s got a profile on Fox News and appears there, so for Bolduc, if they’re campaigning together, it’s possible that these voters will wanna come out and wanna see Gabbard in person, and Bolduc is along for the ride,” he added.

Gabbard’s events in the 2020 primary were often well attended and she even rented a home outside of Manchester for a stretch of the campaign, but many attendees identified as Republicans—often full Trump supporters.

The Bolduc campaign would not say when Gabbard will begin appearing with the retired brigadier general and on-and-off-again election denier, but they touted the Fox News mainstay’s support on Wednesday. (The campaign also declined to detail what the candidate’s current position is on the validity of the 2020 election results.)

“We don’t agree on every issue, but I am honored to have the support of Tulsi Gabbard who shares my view that the status quo is broken, and we need a change of direction,” Bodluc said in a press release. “Tulsi is a fellow change agent and independent-minded outsider willing to speak truth to power.”

But Gabbard’s reappearance on the New Hampshire stage has excited some of her early backers in the Granite State, but it wasn’t clear whether Bolduc would ultimately reap the benefit.

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“It's not surprising to see Tulsi supporting Bolduc,” Eric Jackman, a podcast host and former Republican who often accompanied Gabbard around the state during her 2020 bid, told The Daily Beast. “During my year on the trail in NH with Tulsi, her message resonated with a wide swath of the electorate … Veterans especially were very open and friendly to Tulsi's message of shutting down the forever wars and investing in our country's needs.”

The longtime Tulsi-stan from Peterborough didn’t go as far as to say his political hero stumping for Bolduc would make him vote for the GOP nominee, whom he voted against in August’s primary in favor of libertarian Bitcoin enthusiast Bruce Fenton.

The high-ranking New Hampshire Republican, who requested anonymity because they are not authorized to speak on behalf of candidates, said the party’s best hope is for non-MAGA Republicans and independent voters to start “changing their mindset so they’ll vote for a Republican, even if he’s not a great Republican.”

The GOP operative bemoaned that Bolduc has been changing his answers on the 2020 election depending on the room he’s in, sometimes “forgetting reporters are there.” They added that assurances had been made to other top New Hampshire Republicans that Bolduc’s new campaign manager, Parker Carey—who led former Trump official Matt Mowers’ failed bid against Karoline Leavitt in New Hampshire’s 1st Congressional District—had instructed Bolduc to stick with his message that, upon further research, he concluded the election wasn’t stolen.

That hasn’t happened, and the anxiety behind the scenes hasn’t subsisted.

“I hear a lot of people saying, ‘I’m gonna hold my nose and vote,’” the Granite State GOP operative said, “but I just don’t know if it’ll happen at the polls.”