After months of silence on the immigration issue, Joyce Craig has found her voice.
“Joyce Craig is going on offense and calling out Kelly Ayotte and Chuck Morse for their hypocrisy on border security,” reads a press release from her gubernatorial campaign.
“Ayotte and Morse want to spend $850,000 of New Hampshire taxpayer dollars and send members of the New Hampshire National Guard to the southern border. The move comes just days after Kelly Ayotte and Chuck Morse caved to Donald Trump and opposed a bipartisan border security deal that funds thousands of additional border security agents and gives law enforcement critical tools to secure the border and prevent fentanyl from being smuggled into the U.S.”
The “bipartisan border deal” Craig supports is the $118 billion package that included changes in immigration policy and billions in foreign aid to Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan, Gaza, and other international hot spots. That proposal died in the Senate last week.
Craig’s decision to speak out against sending New Hampshire troops to the southern border is a major shift in campaign strategy. Both Ayotte and Morse have been hitting her for months on her past support for sanctuary policies for illegal immigrants. Ayotte’s campaign has been keeping a running total of the days (184 as of Thursday) she has refused to answer questions about her sanctuary stance.
“Sanctuary Craig knows that there would be no crisis if Joe Biden just did his job and secured our borders,” Ayotte said in response to Craig’s attack. “But like Biden, Craig is a weak leader—and she’d bring dangerous sanctuary policies to our state. Sanctuary Craig isn’t just wrong; she is dangerous for New Hampshire.”
Morse is also standing by his support for states like New Hampshire stepping up for border security. When Craig said “it’s wrong” for Sununu to use New Hampshire resources for the southern border, Morse replied, “What’s wrong is allowing Granite State families to shoulder the consequences of Joe Biden’s border crisis. Close the border, no sanctuary cities, and no amnesty for illegal immigrants!”
Sununu is scheduled to ask the Fiscal Committee to approve the $850,000 on Friday morning. It appears he will have the votes, though at least one Democratic member, state Rep. Mary Jane Wallner of Concord, has expressed her opposition.
“Rather than pushing for real solutions and backing the bipartisan border legislation that passed the U.S. Senate, Gov. Sununu and Donald Trump want to play up the crisis at the southern border to sow fear and division in an election year.”
But with polls showing voters very concerned about the chaos at the border, is Craig’s outspoken opposition to sending the New Hampshire National Guard smart politics?
“No,” said veteran GOP political strategist Brent Littlefield. “As Democrats like to say, she is on the wrong side of history.”
The Ayotte campaign certainly believes the issue is a winner for them.
“Sanctuary Craig would turn New Hampshire into Massachusetts — a sanctuary state overrun by illegal immigrants,” Ayotte said via social media. “We won’t let Joyce Craig MASS up New Hampshire!”
