CONCORD, NH (AP) — New Hampshire will elect a female governor for the third time in November after former U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte and former Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig won their respective primaries on Tuesday.
Thanks to Republican Governor Chris Sununu’s decision not to seek a fifth two-year term, the governor’s office is vacant for the first time since 2016.
Although there were six candidates in the Republican primary, the race was essentially between Ayotte and former state Senate President Chuck Morse, while on the Democratic side, Craig faced strongest competition from Cinde Warmington, a member of the governor’s executive council.
New Hampshire has elected two female governors, both of whom now serve in the U.S. Senate: Democrats Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan. But Ayotte, New Hampshire’s first female attorney general, said she is more interested in following in Sununu’s footsteps.
“Over the last eight years, this state has really taken off under the leadership of Governor Sununu,” she told her supporters in Manchester. “And this election is about making sure New Hampshire stays that way.”
Craig served on Manchester’s school board and city council before being elected the city’s first female mayor in 2017. She said three terms at the helm of the state’s largest city gave her the experience needed to be governor, although critics blamed her for the city’s ongoing problems with homelessness and crime.
In an address to supporters, Craig said she was ready to address the state’s housing crisis, strengthen public schools and expand access to reproductive health care. She also accused Ayotte of lying about her past.
“The last thing our state needs is a governor who pits people and communities against each other,” Craig said. “She is the greatest threat to reproductive freedoms our state has ever seen and too dangerous for New Hampshire. But I know that with all of your hard work and support, we will win in November and create a better future for our state.”
After five years as Attorney General, Ayotte served one term in the U.S. Senate before narrowly losing her seat to Hassan in 2016. During her campaign, she primarily stoked anti-Massachusetts sentiment with her slogan “Don’t Mass it up,” relying less on conventional anti-tax rhetoric and more on the issues of crime and immigration.
Unlike early presidential primaries across the country, New Hampshire is one of the last states to hold state-level primaries, giving winners just eight weeks to woo voters before November 5.
As in the race for governor, there was no incumbent in the 2nd Congressional District, where U.S. Representative Annie Kuster is retiring after six terms in office. The seat has not been vacant since 2010.
Former White House staffer Maggie Goodlander won the Democratic primary for the seat, defeating former Executive Councilor Colin Van Ostern, who previously ran for governor and secretary of state and was endorsed by Kuster.
Goodlander, who is married to President Joe Biden’s national security adviser, grew up in Nashua and recently moved back there from Washington. She worked at the Justice Department as a senior antitrust official and as an adviser to Attorney General Merrick Garland before joining the White House Office of the Chief of Staff earlier this year.
“I entered this campaign to fight for our freedoms, our economic freedom, our freedom to vote and of course the freedom to control our own bodies,” Goodlander told supporters in Nashua. “In Congress, I will approach every single day, every single vote, by asking myself one very simple question: What will this mean for the people of the Second District?”
In the Republican primary in the 2nd District, Lily Tang Williams, who was running for the second time, defeated a dozen opponents and took first place this time.
Tang Williams, a Chinese-born woman who became a U.S. citizen, describes herself as the embodiment of the American dream. She said she wants to go to Congress to keep that dream alive and fight inflation, the border crisis and government buildup.
In the 1st Congressional District, U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas, who is seeking a fourth term, won the Democratic primary, defeating Kevin Rondeau, who ran in the Republican primary two years ago before switching parties.
Pappas, who sees himself as a pragmatic voice in Washington, has said he expects immigration and abortion rights to be the top issues in the general election. He said Republican primary candidates have done little more than proclaim their devotion to former President Donald Trump and repeat anti-abortion arguments.
His seat changed five times in seven terms before he won his first term in 2018.
Seven candidates ran in the Republican 1st District race, including former state Senator Russell Prescott, Manchester City Councilman Joseph Kelly Lavasseur and business executives Hollie Noveletsky, Chris Bright and Walter McFarlane.
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Associated Press writer Kathy McCormack contributed to this report.
