In case it wasn’t obvious how bleak the national environment is for the Democratic Party heading into the midterm elections, New Hampshire Sen. Maggie Hassan is facing a loss against any of several no-name Republicans.
A poll from the University of New Hampshire has Hassan in a statistical tie with nearly all of her possible Republican opponents. Retired Gen. Don Bolduc and Londonderry Town Manager Kevin Smith each trail Hassan by just 1 percentage point. Chuck Morse leads Hassan by 2 points.
Although he is president of the New Hampshire state Senate, 54% of New Hampshire residents don’t know enough about Morse to form an opinion about him. And 73% say the same about Smith. Yet they are both neck-and-neck with an incumbent U.S. senator.
Hassan, on the other hand, is universally known. She has been her state’s governor or senator at every point in the last decade. Her favorability rating is 16 points underwater, with 51% giving her an unfavorable rating. Her net approval among independents is minus-32 points. Hassan is in danger, even though her two most formidable potential opponents, Gov. Chris Sununu (his net approval is plus-29 in the same poll) and former Sen. Kelly Ayotte, declined to run. Republicans are trying to decide who their third-best candidate is when even their fifth-best option might be good enough to win.
Hassan is facing so much pressure that she recently felt the need to support “more investments in personnel, technology, and physical infrastructure to secure our border.” She has also begun to push back on the Biden administration on border security, including President Joe Biden’s decision to end Title 42 restrictions. When a New Hampshire Democrat begins to imitate a border hawk, you get a sense of the Democratic panic that the November midterm elections are going to bring.
Ending Title 42 prematurely will likely lead to a migrant surge that the administration does not appear to be ready for. I’ll keep pushing the administration to strengthen border security & look forward to hearing directly from border agents during my upcoming trip to the border.
— Sen. Maggie Hassan (@SenatorHassan) April 1, 2022
The writing has been on the wall for Hassan for months now. Her approval rating has been floundering since early 2021, and Biden is an anchor around the party’s neck. The combination of a disastrous presidency and an uninspiring incumbent has left the Democratic Party facing the stark reality of losing a Senate seat to the Republicans’ third-string candidates.
