Kelly Ayotte is owning her calls to delay a Supreme Court appointment. But why?
The New Hampshire senator is facing a competitive re-election bid this year.
New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte is not backing down from her calls to delay a Supreme Court nomination, even if it could cost her in a re-election year.
Despite criticism from Democrats, the state’s Republican senator stood firm in an fundraising email Thursday:
I’m protecting the people’s voice, but clearly that’s inspired a huge influx of cash from Washington Democrats. Fight back. In this consequential election year, we ought to let the American people weigh in given the enormous impact the next Supreme nominee could have on the direction of the country.
The move to stand behind Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is a reverse course for Ayotte. Facing a challenge from the Democratic-leaning state’s Gov. Maggie Hassan, the New Hampshire Republican’s campaign had attempted to strike a more moderate, independent tone.
But Ayotte announced Sunday her position that “the Senate should not move forward with the confirmation process until the American people have spoken by electing a new president,’’ following the death of Justice Antonin Scalia.
Both the New Hampshire Democratic Party and Hassan’s campaign quickly responded, calling Ayotte’s position “a complete abdication of the Senate’s constitutional duty.’’
But Ayotte knows that her position won’t make Democrats happy, according to New England College political science professor Wayne Lesperance.
“Fundraising emails are typically targeted to the base,’’ Lesperance said, noting that polls show more than a vast majority of Republicans support delaying the appointment of Scalia’s replacement until the next president in sworn in.
Lesperance added that it is a shift from the “more centrist tone’’ Ayotte had recently taken. As early polling shows her with a slim lead over Hassan, Ayotte had moved toward the middle by taking on Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and by becoming the first Republican senator to support President Barack Obama’s clean power plan. Those actions spurred rumors that New Hampshire conservatives might back a Republican primary challenger against the incumbent senator.
“My sense is that the centrist approach did not play well with the base,’’ Lesperance said.
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