Former Senator Kelly Ayotte, a Republican, has announced her candidacy for governor of New Hampshire, following the decision of Gov. Chris Sununu not to run for office again in 2024. Ayotte stated, “I’m running for governor because New Hampshire is one election away from becoming Massachusetts – from becoming something we are not.” She referred to the recent victory of Democrat Maura Healey in flipping the Massachusetts governor’s office after Charlie Baker declined to run again. Both Baker and Sununu are popular moderate Republicans in their respective states.
Ayotte, who previously served as the attorney general of New Hampshire, lost her Senate seat in 2016 to Democrat Maggie Hassan, who was a former popular governor of the state. Her candidacy for governor comes at a time when the state is attracting attention from Republican presidential hopefuls, many of whom have been actively courting voters in the state, as New Hampshire holds one of the earliest primaries in the GOP nomination process.
Ayotte is expected to gain significant support among Republicans in the state. The nonpartisan Cook Political Report has shifted the race to a toss-up from solid-Republican after Sununu’s announcement. Chuck Morse, the former president of New Hampshire’s state senate who lost the Republican Senate primary against Hassan last year, also entered the race soon after Sununu’s decision.
On the Democratic side, Cinde Warmington, a member of the New Hampshire Executive Council, and Joyce Craig, the mayor of Manchester, had already announced their candidacies before Sununu made his declaration.
Despite recent Republican statewide officials in New Hampshire, the state has leaned towards supporting Democrats in presidential elections, backing them in the last five.
Ayotte unveiled a lengthy list of endorsements from numerous Republicans in the state, who have rallied behind her campaign. However, national Democrats wasted no time in criticizing her and signaled their intention to make abortion protections a central issue in the race. Izzi Levy, the deputy communications director for the Democratic Governors Association, wrote, “Kelly Ayotte has spent her career working to stack the deck against New Hampshire’s working families and attacking their most fundamental freedoms – even leading the charge for a national abortion ban – which is why New Hampshire voters retired her seven years ago after a single term in the Senate.”
In her campaign announcement, Ayotte highlighted her commitment to tackling crime by supporting law enforcement officers and expressed her aim to protect and strengthen New Hampshire’s economic advantage. She also indicated that she would focus on cultural issues that motivate the Republican base, stating that she would “stand with parents, not bureaucrats, when it comes to deciding what is best for our children.”