Republican U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte has comfortably defeated primary challenger Jim Rubens.
She’s now officially facing Democratic Gov. Maggie Hassan in one of the country’s most closely watched U.S. Senate contests. Polls continue to show the race in a dead heat and roughly $100 million in outside spending is expected to pour into the state.
Rubens also ran unsuccessfully in the 2014 Republican primary against Scott Brown.
Ayotte has angered some more conservative members of the Republican base over several of her more moderate positions, such as her support for the Clean Power Plan. But Rubens failed to capture a large following.
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