(New York) The Bolducs of Gilford, New Hampshire secured their place in the pantheon of American families, so to speak, by appearing on the 2017 PBS series Our American Family.
Posted at 7:00 a.m.
In the episode devoted to their clan, some of the 13 children of Charles and Aurora Bolduc recount how their father from Quebec and their mother born in New Hampshire earned their living on a dairy farm lined with a maple grove.
“I hope that part of our Quebec culture will survive,” said one of the family members in the episode aired in 2018.
Four years later, Donald Bolduc, grandson of Charles and Aurora Bolduc, in turn attracted attention in the United States. He will participate in the last primaries of the season on Tuesday before the midterm elections are held, running for a seat in the United States Senate in the Granite State.
The candidacy of this retired brigadier general raises an unprecedented question: can we be too MAGA to receive the support of Donald Trump, father of the movement known by the acronym of his 2016 slogan (Make America Great Again) and recently described as an extremist by Joe Biden?
Since the beginning of the primary season, the former president has made a point of supporting the candidates of his party who best represent his vision. However, so far, it has not done so with respect to the Republican primary for the New Hampshire Senate election.
It is, however, an important election. Not too long ago, the Republicans had high hopes of beating outgoing Democratic Senator Maggie Hassan, who was elected in a snatch in 2016. Such a victory should bring them closer to their objective: the conquest of the majority in the Senate in favor of the November elections.
But Republicans are less confident today. And Don Bolduc has something to do with it. According to a University of New Hampshire poll released at the end of August, he is 21 percentage points ahead of his closest rival, Chuck Morse, president of the New Hampshire Senate, who received the support of the Republican governor of New Hampshire last Thursday. State, Chris Sununu.
“He’s not a serious candidate,” Sununu said last month of Don Bolduc.
But who is he exactly? Son of Armand Bolduc, who inherited the family farm and sat on the municipal council of Laconia for 34 years, Don Bolduc served under arms for 33 years, carrying out 10 missions in Afghanistan. The recipient of numerous military decorations, he notably survived an episode of friendly fire after a B-52 dropped a 900 kg bomb on his position and killed three Green Berets, the elite corps of which he was a member.
Retired since 2017, Bolduc unsuccessfully ran for a Senate seat in 2020. But he never stopped campaigning after his defeat, which now gives him an advantage.
“People who know Don Bolduc love him,” said Dante Scala, a political scientist at the University of New Hampshire.
But people who like him less whisper that Don Bolduc never recovered from post-traumatic stress disorder which he himself admitted to having suffered from.
Microchipping and election rigging
One thing is certain: the man has multiplied controversial statements in recent years.
In May 2020, he expressed skepticism about potential COVID-19 vaccines and suggested that these might contain microchips.
A year later, he and 123 other retired generals and admirals signed a letter claiming the 2020 presidential election was rigged in favor of Joe Biden.
And he has already called Governor Sununu a “Chinese Communist sympathizer”.
“If Bolduc wins the primary, I think we will all have to sit down and redraw the dividing lines […] of what is acceptable for the Republican norm and what is not, analyzes Professor Scala. Certainly the Democrats will exploit many of Bolduc’s statements to the fullest. »
Dante Scala does not rule out the possibility that Donald Trump will support Don Bolduc by Tuesday. But Trump’s ex-2016 campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, a New Hampshire resident, reportedly made it clear to his ex-boss that the retired general was not a good bet.
Why then do so many New Hampshire Republicans seem to think otherwise?
“It may be the consequence of Trump’s victory in 2016,” replies Paul Tille, Republican strategist from New Hampshire, who supports one of Bolduc’s opponents. “No one thought Trump could win, and he won. Now, some Republicans think Bolduc can win in November, even though the data indicates otherwise. »
Sandy Bolduc, one of Charles and Aurora Bolduc’s granddaughters, might have another answer.
“When you say the name Bolduc—I’m Sandy Bolduc—it means you’re a good person, an honest person,” she says in the episode of the PBS series devoted to her family.