CONCORD, N.H. (AP) – Voters in New Hampshire’s primary will choose gubernatorial, congressional and statewide legislative candidates Tuesday, setting the stage for short but intense election campaigns.
Unlike the nation’s first presidential primary, New Hampshire is among the last states to hold statewide primaries, giving winners just eight weeks to woo voters before Nov. 5.
Two of the top races are particularly competitive, with no established run. Republican Gov. Chris Sununu’s decision not to seek a fifth two-year term means the seat is 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 open. I have been sitting since 2010.
Six candidates are vying in the Republican gubernatorial race, led by former U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte and former state Senate President Chuck Morse. The other nominees 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 to be elected governor, after Democrats Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan. Much of his campaign centered on “Don’t Mass it up,” an anti-Massachusetts slogan, while he focused more on issues of crime and immigration and less on traditional anti-tax rhetoric.
Morse, who led the state Senate for a decade, hopes to return to the Statehouse after losing the Republican primary for the U.S. Senate in 2022. He has sought to align himself with former President Donald Trump by criticizing Ayotte for withdrawing his endorsement. in 2016 before supporting him this year.
On the Democratic side, voters will choose from three candidates, though the race is largely between former Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig and New Hampshire Councilwoman Cinde Warmington. Restaurant owner Jon Kiper lagged far behind in both fundraising and name recognition.
Craig also served on Manchester’s school board and council before being elected the city’s first female mayor. He says running the state’s largest city for three terms gives him the experience to be governor, even as critics blame him for its continued struggles with homelessness and crime.
Warmington, a lawyer, is in his second term on the Executive Council, a five-member panel that approves state contracts and judicial and state agency appointments. As a lone Democrat, he often opposes the views of fellow members and the governor, especially in matters related to health care and education. He has been criticized for his previous work as a lobbyist for the pharmaceutical industry.
Other high-profile races are in the Democratic-leaning 2nd Congressional District.
In the Democratic primary, Kuster has endorsed former staffer Colin Van Ostern, also a former board member who ran unsuccessfully for governor in 2016. He faces tough competition from Maggie Goodlander, who grew up in New Hampshire but spent most of her adulthood there. life in Washington, most recently at the Justice Department and the White House.
There are more than a dozen candidates in the Republican primary, led by economist and author Vikram Mansharamani, anti-communist activist Lily Tang Williams and commodities trader Bill Hamlen.
In the 1st Congressional District, U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas faces no significant challenge in the Democratic primary as he seeks a fourth term. There are seven candidates in the GOP race, including former state Sen. Russell Prescott, Manchester alderman Joseph Kelly Lavasseur and business leaders Hollie Noveletsky, Chris Bright and Walter McFarlane.
