A dozen Republican challengers vie for chance to face Hassan

A horde of Republicans are fighting for the chance to run against Democrat incumbent U.S. Sen. Maggie Hassan, and Libertarian candidate Jeremy Kauffman has collected more than 4,000 signatures, landing him a spot on the ballot. The Republican roster has expanded in recent months to include an experienced executive consultant, a Bitcoin millionaire and a self-proclaimed populist candidate running on a platform for improving mental health access.

Dennis Lamare is a lifelong Granite Stater who previously ran for Senate in 2014 and 2010, as well as the New Hampshire House of Representatives in 2012. Lamare, of Lee, identifies mental health and drug addiction as primary concerns.

“Mental illness is the 600-pound gorilla in the room that nobody talks about but is always there,” Lamare said, recalling his own experience growing up with a schizophrenic brother. “I don't want other people to go through what I went through. I want to make sure resources come back from Washington that would help people in need, in crisis. Whether it be at home, inpatient, outpatient, community, statewide, whatever. I want to make sure these resources are available.”

Lamare emphasized the challenges faced by rural communities throughout the state, such as lack of access and long distances to mental health care providers.

“I want to have more resources on a local level so people don't have to travel,” Lamare said, highlighting extreme gas prices. “Mental health isn't just for a specific age bracket. It's children, veterans, elderly people. It's a broad range and category and we need to make sure we address everybody as best we can.”

Lamare acknowledged that New Hampshire was getting federal money for mental health, but that it was not enough. Adjacent to the mental health issues is the drug epidemic.

“New Hampshire has the highest per capita death rate in the nation,” Lamare asserted regarding drug use. “I heard that the death rate went up 400% from what it was a year ago. We have to make sure that the fentanyl or whatever drugs being used are stopped either at the border of New Hampshire, or the border of the United States down in Mexico. China is also one of our biggest threats because they supply a lot of the fentanyl and they steal our technology.”

The Sun could not confirm Lamare's claims that the death rate increased by 400%. According to the CDC, West Virginia has the highest overdose death rate at 81.4 per 100,000, while New Hampshire rests at 30.3 per 100,000.

Republican establishment candidate and New Hampshire Senate President Chuck Morse of Salem stressed border security as one his top three priorities.

“Priority one is to close the border and build the wall. We ought to be following the laws we have in place on immigration,” Morse said, emphasizing a return to Trump-era immigration policies. “You just have to go back to a year and eight months ago,” Morse said. “This catch-and-release stuff we're doing, [immigrants] should have to come through a port of entry. They shouldn't be ushered into the U.S. when applying for asylum. For us to let them come in and go to one court hearing and let them skip off into the country, that's wrong.”

Candidate Vikram Mansharamani, an author, business executive and professional consultant from Lincoln, is a child of immigrants who fled India after their land became part of Pakistan due to the British Empire’s border redraw in 1947. Mansharamani described a “tall wall, wide gate” policy that advocates for increased security and immigration reform.

“The incentives are, you have a broken immigration system of backlogs for people to get considered. You want me to come in and go through a legal process and it might take me 10 years of waiting, not sure, or I could just cross the border and go into the American system,” Mansharamani said. “That’s a bad incentive structure. Yes, you do need to build a wall. That will slow the flow,” Mansharamani continued. “What we need to do is fix the legal immigration process so that those that do want to come in legally have the opportunity to do so.”

For Morse, the priority is stemming illegal immigration before looking at policy. “I'm all in favor of talking to people and doing visas, but no, the first thing that needs to happen is close the border and build the wall and follow the laws we have today,” Morse said.

Second on Morse’s agenda was energy prices and inflation.

“You can't go anywhere and not hear people talking about energy prices,” Morse said, citing a return to the energy market of 18 months ago. “I think really that's what we need to do as a country. Whether it’s petroleum, wind, solar, we need to make those options available in the country. That's what we need to get back to.”

Morse emphasized a push back toward fossil fuels via the reversal of President Joe Biden's energy policies.

“The president made it clear that we aren't going to have petroleum,” Morse said. “Let's get back to petroleum, it seems to be what everyone wants. Even this administration, when we couldn't get it from Russia, they looked at Venezuela and OPEC nations because they knew we needed more oil.”

When it comes to combating inflation, Morse was quick to reference his long years in New Hampshire government.

“I think this goes back to common sense,” Morse said. “In 2011 we [in New Hampshire] were in the hole by $800 million. We worked pretty logically to work our way through that without borrowing money. Washington just in the last two months, they funded Ukraine, then they went and funded this bill that was supposed to end inflation, now they’re funding student loans. It’s decisions like this that are killing the country. You can’t be spending without knowing what you’re taking in for revenues. We should be acting like New Hampshire does.”

When it came to economics, Mansharamani highlighted his experience in the stratosphere of the financial industry and the global economy.

“We need to remove our vulnerability, i.e., our dependence on China for the strategic most important things that run our economy,” Mansharamani said of bolstering U.S. economic and energy independence. “We need to not have dependence on China for active pharmaceutical ingredients. That's not OK under any scenario. We need to bring that production home.”

Mansharamani also emphasized the risks attached to other critical industries and resources such as rare earth metals, semiconductors and that the U.S. should pivot toward other countries for trade.

“I think what we need to do is doing more trade with countries that fall under our ecosystem of values,” he said. “I do think we're going to see shifting trade patterns. I'm not calling for an end to globalization, but I think the world is bifurcating into two global economies, a Chinese-led ecosystem and a U.S.-led ecosystem. Its going to be based on a set of values and beliefs. That will place new battlegrounds and new vulnerabilities.”

Mansharamani isn't the only freshman candidate with a financial background. Bruce Fenton, a finance expert and cryptocurrency enthusiast originally from Massachusetts, initially came to Portsmouth as part of the Free State Project six years ago before relocating to his current residence in Durham. He has funded his campaign using several million dollars in Bitcoin, attracting media attention.

“Our country is going down a very dark path,” Fenton said. “The biggest thing is stopping what I call tyranny of the last couple years, this idea of central control and central power we've seen over the last several years. I'd be a vote to go down there and vote no on government expansion, mask mandates, mandated injections. Anything like that, I'm totally against it.”

In addition to his reduced government ideology, Fenton touted what he calls his three-two-one tax plan and slashing the federal budget “across the board” by targeting agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Education and the Internal Revenue Service.

“That calls for total elimination of all taxes on the first $300,000 in business income and the first $200,000 in individual income, $100,000 on investment income. Anyone earning under $200K would have no income tax. Same on investments.”

Despite his clear Libertarian streak, Fenton was confident in his ability to appeal to people from all political stripes.

“I can bring in the Libertarians, Free Staters, independents and certainly all the Republicans. I can even bring in some of the Democrats, so I have the best chance of beating Hassan in November.”

Morse referenced his bipartisan work in the New Hampshire Senate and House as evidence of his ability to reach across the aisle and get things done.

“In 2015, Hassan vetoed the budget the speaker and I put on our desk,” Morse recalled. “She made it clear I was gonna blow a $90 million hole in the budget. We went out and explained the budget properly. We were putting business tax cuts.”

He continued, “New Hampshire was 47th highest [in business tax] in the nation at that time. We needed something to get it done. When we got it done, the Democrats voted with the Republicans and we [overrode] Hassan's veto.”

“People talk about cutting spending for different agencies, different projects and items and I agree with that,” Lamare said, "but I think the easiest way to go about stopping spending is to not vote for the spending, just to stop it from the beginning and make deals to reduce what is there.”

When it comes to policy, Lamare stressed principles of limited spending and personal freedoms.

“We have to make sure we are not voting in a negative way for the bills that would increase inflation, draw money out of our pockets,” Lamare said. “I'm not going to vote for a budget that has things that affect our personal liberties, cause inflation or are not favorable for society in general.”

The Republican primary election is Sept. 13. Whoever wins will face off against Democrat incumbent Maggie Hassan on Nov. 8. Hassan acknowledged that whoever the winner, it will be a competitive race.

A recent poll by St. Anselm College placed Don Bolduc at the front of Republicans with 32% of polled voters pledging support, followed by Chuck Morse at 16%. Meanwhile, Fenton and Kevin Smith polled at just 4% with Mansharamani trailing at 2%. However, 39% of those surveyed were undecided, so major shifts could still occur.

“Elections are about choices. Whoever emerges from the Republican primary is going to be a rubber stamp for Mitch McConnell,” Hassan said. “They’ve been clear that they’ll stand with Big Pharma rather than let Medicare negotiate prescription drug prices, they’ll stand with Big Oil and McConnell rather than work to lower energy prices for small businesses and families. It’s also really important [voters] understand that all of my opponents would stand with McConnell and be a yes vote for a national abortion ban.”

Also running in the primary are Gerard Beloin of Colebrook, John Berman and Edmond Laplante Jr. both of Richmond, Andy Martin of Manchester, and Tejasinha Sivalingam of Ashland.