It’s not unusual for emotions to run high in the final days before an election, but New Hampshire GOP Chairman Jennifer Horn’s recent pep talk to Republican voters bordered on WWE-level intensity.
“This is our time. We need to crush it. We need to grab it, run with it, push their heads under over and over again until they cannot breathe anymore, until the elections are over on Tuesday night and we’ve won it all,” said Horn Sunday to a group of about 400 GOPers at a Manchester rally. Republican candidates Scott Brown, Walt Havenstein, Frank Guinta and Marilinda Garcia had just arrived on the NHGOP “Victory Bus,” which pulled directly into Wiggins Airways at the Manchester Airport.
Horn wasn’t the only speaker with harsh words. Former Gov. John H. Sununu, for example, said Democrats should be “embarrassed of their president who has failed America, who has screwed America.” But still, Horn’s rage-filled vitriol belonged to a category unto itself, one which Democrats were quick to criticize.
“This type of inflammatory language tells you everything that you need to know about the status of the New Hampshire Republican Party,” New Hampshire Democratic Party Communications Director Julie McClain said in an emailed statement to msnbc. “There’s no excuse for this kind of violent rhetoric.”
Related: Brown, Shaheen spar over energy in first televised debate New Hampshire is one of three swing states where Republicans are threatening Democratic-held Senate seats in Tuesday’s midterm elections. (The other two are Colorado and Iowa.) Additionally, Republicans stand to gain ground in several red states where Democratic Senate candidates won in the 2008 wave. This year, Republicans are hoping it will be another wave election, in which their party picks up seats in the House and takes over the majority in the Senate. But many races are still in play, and it’s not yet clear whether that will happen. The final University of New Hampshire Survey Center poll found Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen and Republican challenger Scott Brown in a virtual tie.
Emma Margolin
Emma Margolin is a reporter at MSNBC.com. Recommended
