New Hampshire primary voters to pick candidates for short but intense general election campaigns
CONCORD, NH — Voters in New Hampshire’s primary on Tuesday will select candidates for governor, Congress and the entire state legislature, preparing for short but intense campaigns in the general election.
Unlike the nation’s first presidential primaries, New Hampshire is one of the last states to hold statewide primaries, leaving winners with just eight weeks to win over voters before Nov. 5.
Two of the top races are especially competitive, with no incumbent candidate. Republican Gov. Chris Sununu’s decision not to seek a fifth two-year term means the office is open for the first time since 2016. And the 2nd Congressional District, where U.S. Rep. Annie Kuster is retiring after six terms, hasn’t had an open seat since 2010.
Six candidates are competing in the Republican gubernatorial electionsled by former Senator Kelly Ayotte and former Senate President Chuck Morse. The other candidates are Shaun Fife, Robert McClory, Richard McMenamon and Frank Staples.
Ayotte, who was also New Hampshire’s first female attorney general, would be the third woman elected governor, following Democrats Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan. Much of her campaign revolved around “Don’t Mass it up,” an anti-Massachusetts slogan, as she focused more on crime and immigration issues and less on traditional anti-tax rhetoric.
Morse, who led the Senate for a decade, hopes to return to the Statehouse after losing the 2022 Republican primary for U.S. Senate. He has sought to align himself closely with former President Donald Trump and criticized Ayotte for withdrawing her support for Trump in 2016 before backing him this year.
On the Democratic side, voters are choosing from three candidates, though the race is largely between former Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig and Cinde Warmington, a member of the New Hampshire Executive Council. Restaurant owner Jon Kiper lagged far behind in both fundraising and name recognition.
Craig also served on Manchester’s school board and board of aldermen before being elected the city’s first female mayor. She says that three terms leading the state’s largest city gives her the experience to be governor, though critics blame her for the ongoing struggles with homelessness and crime.
Warmington, a lawyer, is serving her second term on the Executive Council, a five-member panel that approves state contracts and judicial and agency appointments. The only Democrat, she often opposes positions of fellow members and the governor, particularly on issues related to health care and education. She has been criticized for her past work as a lobbyist for the pharmaceutical industry.
The other key races are in the 2nd Congressional District, which is overwhelmingly Democratic.
In the Democratic primaries, Kuster has endorsed former staffer Colin Van Osternwho is also a former executive councilor who unsuccessfully ran for governor in 2016. He faces stiff competition from Maggie Goodlanderwho grew up in New Hampshire but spent most of her adult life in Washington, most recently at the Justice Department and the White House.
More than a dozen candidates are running in the Republican primary, led by economist and author Vikram Mansharamani, anti-communist activist Lily Tang Williams and Bill Hamlen, a commodities trader.
In the 1st Congressional District, U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas faces no significant challenge in the Democratic primary as he seeks a fourth term. The GOP battle includes seven candidatesincluding former Senator Russell Prescott, Manchester City Councillor Joseph Kelly Lavasseur and businessmen Hollie Noveletsky, Chris Bright and Walter McFarlane.