Fri. Nov 29th, 2024

New Hampshire voters handed Republicans a 16-8 majority on Tuesday. Here, voters stand in line inside Hooksett’s David R. Cawley Middle School on Tuesday morning.
(Will Steinfeld | New Hampshire Bulletin)

Democrats lost two seats in the state Senate, including that of minority leader Donna Soucy of Manchester, handing Republicans a veto-proof majority in the upper chamber.

Republicans, who already controlled the Senate 14-10, will now hold a 16-8 majority. 

Sen. Shannon Chandley was the other Democrat booted out of office, losing to Republican Tim McGough in District 11. Soucy, a six-term senator for District 18, fell to Republican Victoria Sullivan, a former state representative from Manchester. 

In New Hampshire, any candidate within 20 points of winning may request a recount; results from the secretary of state showed these races were decided on slimmer margins. Soucy trailed Sullivan by 749 votes, or about 2.9 points, while Chandley fell to McGough by 676 votes, or about 1.9 points, according to the results from the Secretary of State’s Office

Sullivan claimed victory early Wednesday morning in an online post, saying she was “truly grateful and blessed.” She became the first Republican to win the seat since Tom DeBlois in 2010, and ended a victory streak from Soucy that began in 2012 and four times included double-digit trounces over her Republican opponents. After more than a decade, voters in Manchester and Litchfield sent Soucy packing Tuesday. 

In District 11, McGough, of Merrimack, posted a video shortly before 8:30 a.m. Wednesday celebrating his win, saying he was ready to get to work. This district – which includes Merrimack, Amherst, Milford, and Wilton – has more often than not gone to Republicans in recent years. It’s not Chandley’s first time being booted from the seat; she won in 2018 only for voters to send her home the next election. The pattern repeated itself: Voters elected her again in 2022, then rejected her this year. 

It was a successful night for Republicans in New Hampshire and around the country. New Hampshire Republicans maintained control of the governor’s office, with Republican Kelly Ayotte triumphing over Democrat Joyce Craig, and were poised to expand their control of the House.

Raymond Buckley, chair of the state’s Democratic Party, acknowledged Democrats’ hold on the state’s congressional delegation in a statement, with wins from incumbent U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas and first-time candidate Maggie Goodlander, but said “voters across our state and country ultimately chose to bring us down a different path than the one we had hoped and worked for.”

Wolfeboro Republican Sen. Jeb Bradley, the outgoing president of the state Senate, celebrated that, for the first time in over a decade, Republicans would have a supermajority in the chamber. 

“This election was a strong endorsement of the work that our majority has done over the past four years,” Bradley said in a statement. “The voters of New Hampshire have spoken and their message is loud and clear – New Hampshire wants common-sense Republican rule in our state government.”

District 1

In another closely watched Senate race, Littleton Rep. David Rochefort maintained Republican control of District 1, which spans the North Country, defeating Democrat Rusty Talbot, a political newcomer. He’ll follow Sen. Carrie Gendreau, a Littleton Republican who did not seek reelection.

Rochefort won 57 percent to Talbot’s 43 percent, winning the seat by more than 4,000 votes, according to the Secretary of State’s Office.

Rochefort has vowed to pass measures to stem out-of-state trash and pause landfill development in the state – legislation that has traditionally died in the Senate but that he says he can get through from inside the chamber. 

Republicans have held this seat since 2018. The last Democrat to hold it, Jeff Woodburn, was felled following his arrest on domestic violence charges and ultimately landed a 30-day jail sentence this year on a criminal mischief conviction

District 7

Though District 7 has sometimes come down to exceptionally thin margins, that wasn’t the case Tuesday. Republican Sen. Daniel Innis, a Bradford business owner and professor, comfortably held onto his seat over Democratic challenger Stu Green, a retired Navy commander from Andover. 

Innis got roughly 55 percent of the vote over Green’s 44 percent, amounting to a lead of more than 3,500 votes, according to the Secretary of State’s Office.

District 9

Incumbent Republican Sen. Denise Ricciardi, a Bedford Republican, held onto the District 9 seat against Democratic challenger Matthew McLaughlin, a Navy veteran and former commercial airline pilot from Bedford.

Republicans have held this seat in all but one election this century, when Democrat Jeanne Dietsch won it by 4.7 points in 2018. Ricciardi won the seat by 1.1 points in 2020 and 4.5 points in 2022. Democrats had hoped to turn it blue once again this cycle.

Ricciardi got 52 percent of the vote over McLaughlin’s 48 percent, besting him by just over 1,000 votes, according to the Secretary of State’s Office.

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