CONCORD — Bruce Fenton, a bitcoin millionaire investor from Durham, said he’s seriously exploring a Republican primary bid for U.S. Senate in 2022.
“The odds have been increasing every day for the past couple of months,” said Fenton, 49, when asked how close he’s coming to enter this race to try to unseat Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H.
Fenton said as a candidate he would offer a different brand to try to tackle the new, “radical challenges” the country faces that he said no candidates are addressing.
“You can’t run on a playbook built in the last 30 years because that world is gone,” Fenton said during a telephone interview.
“We are in a new territory right now. I haven’t seen anybody talking with the level of urgency and importance that I feel about these issues.”
The owner of Chainstone Labs Inc., a Portsmouth-based, financial securities company, Fenton said he’ll decide by early next month whether to join the GOP field that already includes Senate President Chuck Morse, Londonderry Town Manager Kevin Smith and retired Brig. Gen. Don Bolduc of Stratham.
“I think good robust primaries are great for political parties,” Fenton said.
Professionally, Fenton said he’s been a financial executive much longer than the bitcoin craze, with 28 years in the industry.
He owns related capital formation and financial event planning companies.
“I have never run for office, thought about it before, have always been interested in politics and volunteered on different campaigns,” said Fenton, a married father of four children.
Mass. native, moved here during Free State Project
A Navy veteran, Fenton grew up in Brimfield, Mass., and moved to New Hampshire several years ago as part of the Free State Project that was formed to convince more liberty-minded people to migrate here.
“I’m not huge on parties but they are needed if you are going to win,” Fenton said.
“I have always kind of been a Republican, but for many years I have been a liberty-minded Republican. I think there are a lot of Democrats out there who oppose government censorship and bureaucratic overreach.”
Fenton said he’s prepared to put “millions of dollars of my own money” into the race, but wants his campaign to emphasize grass-roots contact with voters and a campaign not reliant on big-money consultants.
As a pro-liberty candidate, Fenton said he supports open borders for immigrants, drug legalization, permissive gun ownership and qualified abortion rights.
Fenton said leaders on Capitol Hill haven’t done enough to push back on attempts to stifle public dissent.
“We are seeing wide-scale censorship, establishment media becoming the talking head for the party in power and major social media companies de-platforming people,” Fenton said.
“That’s not the kind of pro-liberty government America deserves,” he said.
Bolduc was the only GOP hopeful to quickly respond to Fenton’s potential campaign.
“The more, the merrier. Senator Hassan is in sync with President Biden and out of step with New Hampshire,” Bolduc said in a statement.
“As the candidate who has been in this race the longest, I welcome anyone who wants to throw their hat in the ring because spirited primaries are the New Hampshire way.”
Democratic Party Chairman Raymond Buckley said it’s clear GOP primary voters are conflicted about who should oppose Hassan.
“This is just the latest sign that Republicans are unhappy with their unknown and widely disliked field of candidates and that this messy primary is set to get even more chaotic,” Buckley said in a statement.
