Nikki Haley’s campaign unveiled a new 30-second ad this week featuring longtime surrogate and retired U.S. Army brigadier general Don Bolduc, the failed two-time Senate candidate in New Hampshire whom Donald Trump endorsed in the 2022 midterm elections. It’s an effort by the former U.N. ambassador and South Carolina governor to bring more soft Trump voters into her camp ahead of the Granite State’s January 23 primary.
“I’m MAGA all the way. I’ve always been America First,” Bolduc says in the pro-Haley spot. “But this time, I’m for Nikki Haley for president. She’s tough on the border, tough on China. She’s got real plans.”
“With Trump, there’s too many distractions — there’s too much risk of losing,” he continues. “Nikki’s a strong conservative. She’ll take Joe Biden to the cleaners, and she’ll make our country proud.”
High-profile endorsements are always helpful but don’t necessarily move the needle in New Hampshire, says state GOP chairman Chris Ager, who remains neutral in the GOP presidential primary. “I think he did 100 town halls leading up to his primary victory, and he does resonate with a lot of grassroots Republican voters in the state,” Ager tells National Review of Bolduc, whom Trump endorsed after he won the nomination. But at this stage in the race, Ager adds, anything helps. “With these kinds of big-name endorsements, they give the voters a chance to take a second look.”
As she surges in New Hampshire primary polls in the final stretch, Haley also continues to tout her support from Republican governor Chris Sununu and Americans for Prosperity Action, a Koch-backed super PAC that’s now spending millions on her behalf in ads and voter-engagement efforts.
Trump, who maintains a comfortable but shrinking polling lead in the Granite State, seemed to tacitly acknowledge Haley’s surge when his campaign cut a new 30-second ad this week in New Hampshire media markets hitting her on immigration.