Former Sen. Kelly Ayotte is now a step closer to succeeding longtime GOP Gov. Chris Sununu in swing state New Hampshire.
Ayotte, a former state attorney general who narrowly lost her Senate re-election in 2016 after breaking with former President Trump after the release of the infamous “Access Hollywood” video, defeated former New Hampshire Senate president Chuck Morse in Tuesday’s Republican gubernatorial primary.
Sununu, a popular governor with a large national profile, isn’t running for re-election this year after winning four straight two-year terms as the Granite State governor.
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Republican Gov. Chris Sununu of New Hampshire is interviewed by Fox News Digital, on July 11, 2024 in Newfields, N.H. (Fox News – Paul Steinhauser)
Ayotte will face off in eight weeks in the November election with Joyce Craig, who served three two-year terms as mayor of Manchester, New Hampshire’s largest city. Craig captured the Democratic gubernatorial nomination by defeating Cinde Warmington, the only Democrat on New Hampshire’s Executive Council, which is an elected five-member panel that approves state agency heads, judges and major state contracts.
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The battle to succeed Sununu in New Hampshire, a perennial general election swing state, is considered by political pundits as the only competitive governor’s race in the nation this year.
As she ran for her party’s nomination, Ayotte endorsed Trump this year as he campaigns to win back his old job in the White House.
Former Sen. Kelly Ayotte, the front-runner for the Republican gubernatorial nomination in New Hampshire, speaks with voters at the Hampton Beach Seafood Festival, on Sept. 7, 2024. (Kelly Ayotte campaign)
But Morse touted his conservative credentials and his support for Trump. But the former president stayed neutral in the race.
Ayotte, who received Sununu’s endorsement this summer, told Fox News earlier this year that “the path that Gov. Sununu has us on is one of prosperity, one of more freedom. … I want us to continue down that path. I appreciate his leadership and the work that he’s done, and I want to continue his success for this state.”
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Morse, facing an uphill challenge against the higher polling and better funded Ayotte, repeatedly questioned her conservative record as a senator and her support for Trump.
Former New Hampshire state Senate president Chuck Morse, who’s running for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, shakes hands with voters at the Milford, N.H. Labor Day parade, on Sept. 2, 2024 (Chuck Morse gubernatorial campaign)
“I think there’s a big difference between myself and Kelly Ayotte,” Morse said this summer. “I started as a conservative, and I finished as a conservative as Senate president, and I promise you, I will be a governor that’s a conservative. … That’s not what Kelly did when she went to Washington.”
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Ayotte, pushing back on Morse’s attacks, has pointed to Morse’s unsuccessful bid in 2022 for the GOP Senate nomination, and she added that “I’ve known Chuck a long time, and this is a sad way for him to end his political career.”
Similar to the combustible Republican gubernatorial primary, the Democrat’s nomination battle also turned into a war of words.
In a state hard hit by the opioid crisis, Craig recently released an ad criticizing Warmington’s past work as a lobbyist for drugmaking giant Purdue Pharma, known for producing the controversial painkiller OxyContin.
Warmington fired back with an ad of her own as she charged that Craig went on the attack to deflect from her record of steering New Hampshire’s largest city through crime and homelessness crises.
Also grabbing the spotlight in New Hampshire was an ugly primary battle in the race to succeed retiring six-term Democrat Rep. Annie Kuster in the 2nd Congressional District, which covers the western half and northern region of the state.
Kuster was backing Colin Van Ostern, a former staffer and former executive councilor who narrowly lost the 2016 gubernatorial election to Sununu.
Democratic candidates in New Hampshire’s 2nd Congressional District Maggie Goodlander (left) and Colin Van Ostern (right) take part in a primary debate, on June 7, 2024 in Manchester, New Hampshire. (NH Today Show)
Van Ostern faced off against Maggie Goodlander, a former top lawyer in President Biden’s administration who served as a deputy assistant attorney general at the Justice Department and who is married to Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan.
The Associated Press projected that Maggie Goodlander would capture the Democratic congressional nomination.
The primary turned ugly with an attack ad targeting Goodlander for past donations to “pro-life” Republicans. There were also carpetbagger allegations directed at Goodlander, who was born in the district but hadn’t lived there in decades, and, through her husband, also had connections to top national Democrats, including former President Clinton and former Secretary of State and 2016 Democrat presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
Former four-term Gov. John Lynch originally backed Van Ostern but switched to Goodlander, saying “I think his campaign is one of the nastiest I’ve seen in my fifty years of being involved in elections here in New Hampshire.”
Goodlander faced criticism for going negative first, after an aligned super PAC took aim in an ad at Van Ostern, who enjoyed the support not only of Kuster but a number of leading state Democrats.
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In a crowded Republican congressional primary field, the AP projected that Lily Tang Williams, who was making her second straight bid for the congressional nomination, would top Vikram Mansharamani, who ran unsuccessfully for the 2022 GOP Senate nomination.
In the state’s 1st Congressional District, which covers the eastern half of the state, three-term Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas was easily renominated. The AP projects that Russell Prescott will win the GOP nomination, defeating a crowded field of Republican rivals.
After six months of contests, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Delaware held the final state primaries of the 2024 election cycle.
Paul Steinhauser is a politics reporter based in New Hampshire.
