CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Former U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte won the GOP nomination for governor in New Hampshire on Tuesday, securing a chance to succeed fellow Republican Chris Sununu, who is stepping away after four terms.
Though six candidates were competing the Republican primary, the race largely was between Ayotte and former state Senate President Chuck Morse.
Ayotte, who was New Hampshire’s first female attorney general, would become the state’s third woman to be elected governor, following Democrats Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan, if she wins in November.
“Thank you, New Hampshire!” Ayotte said on the social platform X. “We are ready to win up and down the ballot in November. Together, we’ll keep our wonderful state safe, prosperous and free.”
After five years as attorney general, Ayotte served one term in the U.S. Senate before narrowly losing her seat to Hassan in 2016. Since leaving Washington, she has served on several corporate and nonprofit boards. She’s focused much of her campaign stoking anti-Massachusetts sentiment with her “Don’t Mass it up” slogan, leaning less on the traditional anti-tax rhetoric and more on crime and immigration.
Morse, who led the state Senate for a decade, had hoped to return to the Statehouse after losing the Republican primary for U.S. Senate in 2022.
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Primary voters were also picking candidates for Congress and their entire Legislature on Tuesday, setting the stage for short but intense general election campaigns.
In contrast to its first-in-the-nation presidential primary, New Hampshire is among the last states to hold state-level primary elections, leaving the winners just eight weeks to woo voters before Nov. 5.
Two of the top races were extra competitive, with no incumbent running. Sununu’s decision not to seek a fifth two-year term meant the position was open for the first time since 2016. And the 2nd Congressional District, where U.S. Rep. Annie Kuster is retiring after six terms, has not been an open seat since 2010.
In the Republican gubernatorial primary, Ayotte defeated Morse, Shaun Fife, Robert McClory, Richard McMenamon and Frank Staples.
“I love Sununu. I wanted to find a candidate who was going to be the same moving forward,” said school administrator Melissa Clark, 42, of Concord, an independent voter who cast her ballot for Ayotte. New Hampshire allows unaffiliated voters to participate in either party’s primary.
On the Democratic side, voters were choosing from among three gubernatorial candidates, though the race was largely between former Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig and Cinde Warmington, a member of the Executive Council of New Hampshire. Restaurant owner Jon Kiper lagged far behind in both fundraising and name recognition.
Craig also served on the Manchester school board and board of aldermen before being elected the city’s first female mayor. She says leading the state’s largest city for three terms gives her the experience to be governor, though critics blame her for its ongoing struggles with homelessness and crime.
Warmington, a lawyer, is in her second term on the Executive Council, a five-member panel that approves state contracts and judicial and state agency nominations. As the lone Democrat, she frequently opposes positions taken by fellow members and the governor, particularly on matters related to health care and education. She has been criticized for her past work as a lobbyist for the pharmaceutical industry.
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“I wanted to give Joyce Craig a shot at it because of her background,” said Robert Norton, a Democrat and retired bibliographer from Concord. Of Warmington, he said, “I think she knows some of the ins and outs of the state government, but maybe too much of the ins and outs of the state government. Maybe Joyce Craig will have slightly different ways to approach it.”
T. Marcille, an independent voter from Concord, supported Warmington, saying she conveys warmth and a sense of caring.
“She’s going to stand up for women” said Marcille, a retired teacher.
The other high-profile races were in the Democratic-leaning 2nd Congressional District.
In the Democratic primary, former White House aide Maggie Goodlander won a chance to fill the seat being left vacant by Kuster.
Goodlander defeated Colin Van Ostern, a former member of the governor’s Executive Council and unsuccessful candidate for governor and secretary of state. He had been endorsed by Kuster.
Goodlander, who is married to President Joe Biden’s national security advisor, grew up in Nashua and recently moved back there from Washington. She worked in the Justice Department as a top antitrust official and as counsel to Attorney General Merrick Garland before moving to the White House chief of staff’s office earlier this year.
Throughout the campaign, the candidates criticized each others’ pasts. Van Ostern repeatedly brought up Goodlander’s work for the late Sen. John McCain and other Republicans, while she pointed out his work at a venture capital firm.
Alex Streeter, 43, a Democrat, said he was torn but ended up voting for Goodlander.
“I’m receptive to the argument that she’s kind of carpet-bagging,” said Streeter, of Concord, an engineer. “At the same time I know that nothing happens in Washington, D.C., without knowing people and having connections, and I think that in this case, that’s going to be valuable.”
The Republican primary includes more than a dozen candidates, 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 won the Democratic primary as he seeks a fourth term, defeating Kevin Rondeau, who ran in the Republican primary two years ago before switching parties.
Pappas, who considers himself a pragmatic voice in Washington, has said he expects immigration and abortion rights to be the top issues in the general election. He said the Republican primary candidates did little more than express devotion to former President Donald Trump and regurgitate anti-choice talking points.
His seat flipped five times in seven election cycles before he won his first term in 2018.
The GOP 1st District contest featured seven candidates, including former state Sen. Russell Prescott, Manchester Alderman Joseph Kelly Lavasseur and business executives Hollie Noveletsky, Chris Bright and Walter McFarlane.