Former White House Staffer from the Trump administration, Karoline Leavitt, has won a highly contested Republican primary in New Hampshire on Tuesday night, the Associated Press projects.
Leavitt stood out in a crowded GOP primary field in New Hampshire’s 1st Congressional District and will now face incumbent Rep. Chris Pappas, (D-NH), whose seat is considered questionable in November’s general election. Pappas won unopposed.
The GOP field included former TV broadcaster Gail Huff Brown, wife of Scott Brown, a former U.S. senator from Massachusetts and ambassador to New Zealand during the Trump administration. Also running was Matt Mowers, who won the district’s congressional 2020 Republican nomination and was a Trump administration State Department adviser.
But the candidate closest to Trump might be Leavitt, who worked in his White House’s press office and has also campaigned with Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas.
“Her compass always points to Trump,” said Dante Scala, a University of New Hampshire political science professor. He added, in reference to the former president’s “Make America Great Again” campaign slogan, “She, in a very kind of crisp, sharp, confident way, will say the most MAGA thing that can be said in any situation.”
The Associated Press called the race at 11:48 pm est. with roughly 66% of the votes counted. Leavitt took 33.9% of the votes beating out runner-up Mowers by 8 points. There were 10 GOP candidates in total competing for N.H. District 1.
