Which is pretty amazing timing, right? Bolduc’s 2020 election research was completed just as the Republican primary was winding down. And his conclusion — that Biden did in fact win — happens to come as he tries to shift from winning over GOP voters — many of whom, like Trump, believe the 2020 election was rigged — to reaching out to to more centrist general election voters who, well, don’t. It is worth noting here that there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 elections. Other Republican candidates have tried to make similar shifts in their rhetoric around hot-button issues after winning their primaries. Arizona GOP Senate candidate Blake Masters, for example, trashed his campaign website about some of the more extreme positions on abortion he had espoused during his victorious campaign. But none have reversed themselves so completely — and done so so quickly — on an issue as Bolduc. That he had the gall to try — and to do so less than 48 hours after winning a primary largely due to his adherence to the principles of Trumpism — speaks to the near-impossible tightrope Republican candidates are forced to walk. walk. Winning the Republican nomination in most states now requires at least paying lip service to Trump’s false election claims. But in doing so, you run the real risk of alienating independents who have long since decided that the 2020 election was free and fair — and they don’t care about politicians who continue to fight to repeat it. The point: Bolduc’s abrupt reversal is about as clumsy as you can get from a basic “faith” you’ve been basing a campaign on until now. That he felt the need to do so, however, is more indicative of where the base of the Republican Party stands vis-a-vis the country at large right now.
