“We won’t let them Mass up New Hampshire,” Ayotte told supporters Tuesday, drawing a wave of chants as she invoked the Bay State, her favorite foil, as an ominous example of the perils that would befall the Granite State under Democratic leadership.
Ayotte has campaigned on a promise to follow popular Republican incumbent Governor Chris Sununu’s model for leadership. He endorsed her in the GOP primary.
“New Hampshire is the best state to live, the best state to work, the best state to raise a family, and this election is about making sure that New Hampshire remains that way,” Ayotte said. “The future of our state is at stake because the other side wants to take us down a very different path.”
Ayotte’s win was called by The Associated Press right after the last polls closed at 8 p.m., but Craig’s win wasn’t called until about an hour after Ayotte’s speech.
In the meantime, Craig supporters gathered roughly 100 yards away, inside The Rex Theatre, the same venue where she held her campaign kickoff more than a year ago. While they waited for votes to be tallied, they watched part of the televised presidential debate.
“New Hampshire is the best place to live, work, and raise your family,” Craig said to cheers as she launched into her victory speech and took aim at Ayotte.
“She is in this for herself, and we can’t trust her to fight for us,” Craig said. “I’ll always take on the tough fights for New Hampshire.”
In the GOP primary, Ayotte prevailed over former New Hampshire Senate President Chuck Morse by more than 30 percentage points, according to an incomplete tally. Morse conceded within 15 minutes of polls closing.
In the Democratic primary, Craig prevailed over Executive Councilor Cinde Warmington by a narrower margin. Craig had secured about 48 percent of the votes counted, as of 11 p.m., while Warmington secured about 42 percent, according to an incomplete tally compiled by the Associated Press. An underdog candidate, Newmarket small-business owner Jonathan A. Kiper, had about 10 percent of the vote in the Democratic primary.
Warmington addressed a small group of her supporters from the Phenix Hall stage in Concord, after a momentary struggle to silence audio from the presidential debate that attendees had been watching.
“We did not get the results we wanted tonight, but I am so proud of the campaign we ran,” Warmington said, adding that she will throw her support behind Craig to help defeat Ayotte in November.
The issues most likely to define the general election are fairly clear already. Based on their main talking points, Craig will likely continue to focus on abortion rights, and Ayotte will keep talking about the quality of life here in the downtown area of Manchester, the state’s most populous city, where unhoused people slept on the sidewalk within a block of the two campaigns’ victory parties.
Ayotte, a former New Hampshire attorney general, is campaigning on promises to shore up public safety and fight crime, and she has blamed Craig for challenges related to drugs and homelessness in Manchester. Her campaign has been airing attack ads about violence in the city, including one she pulled off the air over a major inaccuracy.
Craig contends the criticism of her mayoral record is dishonest. She has cited data that shows violent crime in Manchester fell by about 40 percent on her watch, while she worked to reduce opioid overdoses and build more affordable housing.
Dante J. Scala, a political science professor at the University of New Hampshire, said the extensive negativity around Craig’s tenure as Manchester mayor — from not only Ayotte but Warmington as well — “really pushes on some buttons in New Hampshire,” especially “the divide between urban and rural.”
Scala said the last Manchester mayor who sought statewide office, Theodore L. Gatsas, struggled to be seen as more than a Manchester-area politician and finished third in the GOP’s 2016 gubernatorial primary. Craig could face a similar challenge in figuring out how to establish herself as a statewide leader.
“She’s got to solve that puzzle,” Scala said.
Craig and her allies have portrayed Ayotte as a threat to abortion rights and reproductive health care more generally, citing her track record as attorney general and a US senator, including her advocacy a decade ago for federal restrictions on abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy and her role shepherding Justice Neil Gorsuch through his confirmation to the US Supreme Court, where he joined in overturning Roe v. Wade.
Ayotte and Republicans have pushed back, accusing Democrats of fear-mongering for votes. Ayotte has said she “will not change” New Hampshire’s current abortion law, which allows abortions until 24 weeks of gestation and in limited circumstances thereafter.
This race represents what Democrats see as perhaps their best shot to retake New Hampshire’s corner office since 2016, when Sununu was first elected governor. Sununu opted not to seek reelection to a fifth two-year term and endorsed Ayotte as his preferred successor.
Anna Brown, executive director of the nonpartisan nonprofit Citizens Count, said she was a bit surprised when Sununu opted to wade into the primary at all. His endorsement suggested “the Sununu wing” of the party had coalesced around Ayotte, perhaps for pragmatic reasons, she said.
“I think they are realistic that Kelly Ayotte is their best chance of a Republican holding onto that office because of her potential ability to appeal to moderates,” Brown said.
That view was echoed by some Republican voters. Louis Misiano, 63, of Londonderry, a registered Republican, said he considered both GOP contenders and figured Ayotte was better-suited than Morse to lead from a posture of strength.
“He came across to me as, I hate to say this, but kind of weak,” Misiano said.
Other voters seemed sympathetic to Morse’s argument that Ayotte had been too liberal and insufficiently loyal to former president Donald J. Trump.
Morgan Tucker, 43, a realtor who lives in Dunbarton, said she backed Morse as a true champion of Republican principles, including related to immigration enforcement.
“He believes in country, borders,” Tucker said of Morse. “I don’t see him as a RINO against Kelly Ayotte.”
Scala, the UNH professor, said the presidential race is sure to influence the gubernatorial race. If Trump doesn’t perform better in New Hampshire this year than he did in 2016 and 2020, then Ayotte will need to attract support from ticket-splitters willing to elect her as governor and Vice President Kamala Harris as president, which is doable but not easy, especially for a non-incumbent, he said.
“Before Sununu, Democrats were obviously controlling that seat more often than not,” he said. “It’s harder, I think, to run ahead of the presidential ticket when it’s an open seat.”
Ayotte is supporting Trump’s candidacy this year, albeit with less enthusiasm than that which Morse projected throughout the GOP primary. Morse faulted Ayotte for having unendorsed Trump shortly before the 2016 election over the revelation of an “Access Hollywood” tape in which Trump could be heard bragging about groping women without their consent.
Amanda Gokee of the Globe Staff contributed to this report.
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Steven Porter can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him @reporterporter.
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Publish date : 2024-09-10 13:10:00
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