Former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney will host a fundraiser for Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., in a move many see as an attempt to distance herself from the current GOP standard bearer, Donald Trump.
Romney, who has called Trump a "phony" and a "fraud," will host the Lakes Region event on Friday night and Ayotte will be the guest of honor,
reports WMUR-TV in Manchester.
Ayotte, in a tight battle to retain her seat with challenger and Granite State Gov. Maggie Hassan, has tread carefully with respect to Trump. She criticized his recent remarks about "the Second Amendment people" stopping Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton as "inappropriate."
Last week, Trump officially
endorsed Ayotte's re-election bid, despite saying earlier, "I don't know Kelly Ayotte,"
in an interview with The Washington Post. "I know she's given me no support — zero support — and yet I'm leading her in the polls. I'm doing very well in New Hampshire."
Despite Trump's claims, Real Clear Politics has him faring
worse against Hillary Clinton than
Ayotte is against Hassan, a Democrat. He appears to face an uphill battle in the swing state.
"One only has to look at the 2014 results, where across the country in every purple state, Democrats were in danger and many, many lost," Ray Buckley, chairman of the New Hampshire Democratic Party,
told WBUR-FM in Boston. "But here in New Hampshire, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen was re-elected, and Gov. Maggie Hassan, despite being outspent, was re-elected. And that had everything to do with the ground game."
"If you are a Trump supporter and want to get a sign for your yard, there's no place to go and get it," Fergus Cullen, a former state GOP chairman, told WBUR. "At this point, we would traditionally have regional field offices that are being opened that are basically funded by the presidential campaign."
"But none of that is happening," he said. "The lack of coordination and funding on the Trump campaign means there is no organized get-out-the-vote effort, and that's going to have significant consequences down-ballot."
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