At first glance, we couldn’t appear to be more different. A former member of Congress from Hawaii and a retired Brigadier General and lifelong Granite Stater. One a former Democrat, the other a lifelong conservative. A former presidential candidate and a current candidate for the U.S. Senate.

Yet, with just days before midterm elections, we find ourselves shoulder-to-shoulder on the campaign trail in New Hampshire because the stakes are so high.

We both share a deep love of country and appreciation of our God-given rights and freedoms enshrined in our Constitution. We recognize how our current crop of leaders in Washington have failed us.

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The so-called woke elite Democrats in Washington are out of touch with the hardships the American people are struggling with. They are instead seeking to undermine our freedom at every turn.

Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., is part of that, and it’s why we are urging voters in New Hampshire to retire her and send Don Bolduc to be their voice and ambassador in Washington. 

For more context, it is helpful to understand how we met. It was the quintessential Granite State encounter at an American Legion in the Lakes Region. At the time, we were both candidates: one running in the 2020 Democratic Primary for president, the other in a Republican contest for the U.S. Senate.

With our shared military background and outsider status, we were kindred souls in many ways. We understand how important it is to make sure our military has what they need to do their job, and how our country has a responsibility to honor their service when our veterans come home. Sending our men and women in uniform into battle must be a last resort, not a first option, and only if there is a clear, achievable objective that provides for the safety and security of the American people.

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Having both seen the cost of war firsthand, we understand the importance of peace, and how essential and urgent it is that we stop spending taxpayer dollars to escalate the proxy war against Russia in Ukraine, walk us back from the brink of nuclear war, and support a negotiated end to this disastrous war.

We are committed to the oath we took to support and defend the Constitution, which includes ensuring that Congress fulfill its war powers responsibility — something it has failed to do for decades. 

Senator Maggie Hassan has failed to do her job by being nothing but a rubber stamp on President Biden’s disastrous and dangerous foreign policy. We need Don Bolduc in the US Senate to stop President Biden from fulfilling his unconstitutional declaration that he will unilaterally send our men and women to war with China — ignoring the fact that the Constitution grants the power to declare war solely to the United States Congress. 

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We speak truth to power, no matter how many people in both parties we might anger in the process, because our commitment is to the American people and the country we love. 

New Hampshire voters are smart enough to see through the noise. They are open-minded and freedom loving. They know our God-given rights enshrined in the Constitution are under assault by elite career politicians in Washington through a blizzard of executive orders, cancel culture proclamations, and never-ending regulations that are intended to give them control over every facet of our lives.

Too many of these politicians are controlled by the party bosses, the lobbyists, and special interests. They have lost sight of the interests of the people and are obsessed with clinging to power.

Senator Hassan falls into that camp. She bills herself as an "independent voice for New Hampshire" but votes with Joe Biden more than 96 percent of the time. She wants the people of New Hampshire to vote for her again, but she has gone to great lengths to avoid facing them and answering their questions. The ridiculous restrictions she has tried to impose on debate formats led the state’s leading radio personality, Jack Heath, to pen a searing piece titled, "Hassan Has Lost Her ‘New Hampshire Way’."

We don’t agree on everything, nor should we. But when you cast your vote in this election, remember the issues and beliefs on which we are aligned — our country is headed in the wrong direction, our freedoms are under attack, and true change is only possible by replacing the politicians who have failed us. Out with the insiders, and in with leaders willing to fight on behalf of the American people and our Constitution — even if it means ruffling some feathers along the way.

Don Bolduc is a retired brigadier general and the 2022 Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in New Hampshire.