Republican Kelly Ayotte has won the race for New Hampshire governor, defeating Democrat Joyce Craig in a race that turned on the question of whether to keep the state on its current path.
Ayotte, a former U.S. senator and state attorney general, claimed victory in a Salem ballroom packed with supporters shortly before 10 p.m. Tuesday.
“Our state has so much to be proud of: We are unique in so many ways,” Ayotte said. “And tonight’s victory is a victory for New Hampshire, but it’s also a victory for an even brighter future in the greatest state in the nation.”
As of 11:30 p.m. Tuesday, Ayotte was winning 53% to 46% over Craig, with roughly 75% of ballots counted.
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Ayotte largely framed her candidacy as a continuation of the tenure of Gov. Chris Sununu, whose decision not to seek reelection set up the open seat race. He endorsed Ayotte and campaigned frequently alongside her in the final months of the race.
Ayotte served one term in the U.S. Senate, but lost a tight race for reelection in 2016. She also previously served as the state’s first female attorney general. When she launched her campaign for governor, she promised to focus on keeping taxes low and improving public safety. She also frequently invoked Massachusetts as a punching bag on the campaign trail, urging the voters not to “Mass up New Hampshire.”
Craig spent three terms as the mayor of Manchester, New Hampshire’s largest city, before launching her campaign for governor. She entered the race with a promise to protect reproductive rights and strengthen public education.
The race pitted two experienced campaigners against each other in a race that attracted lots of national attention — and national money. Ayotte raised $21 million as of Oct. 30, while Craig collected $7.3 million. Both candidates benefited from strong financial backing from national political action committees, with 70% of Ayotte’s money coming from a PAC controlled by the Republican Governors Association, and the Democratic Governors Association funneling almost $9 million into another political committee, Put New Hampshire First, that has paid for anti-Ayotte TV ads on Craig’s behalf.
In fact, this race was largely defined by negative campaigning from the start. Both candidates argued that the other could not be trusted on issues ranging from taxes and abortion to immigration and housing.
Throughout the race Ayotte promised to keep New Hampshire “on the Sununu path,” while taking aim at Craig’s performance during her three terms as Manchester mayor, including in graphic campaign ads portraying the state’s largest city as beset by crime and homelessness.
“What we are showing is the lack of leadership under her as mayor,” Ayotte argued during a debate before the Manchester Chamber of Commerce.
Craig defended her record in Manchester, pointing to statistics that showed drops in some crimes and a growth in housing units in the city.
“I am proud of this community,” Craig countered. “But Kelly Ayotte has spent this entire campaign depicting Manchester as this terrible place, and that is completely unacceptable.”
Craig also targeted Ayotte’s legislative record in Washington and criticized her current stance on abortion as a convenient — and disingenuous — political about face. In previous bids for office, Ayotte ran as an opponent to abortion rights. In the Senate, she voted for a bill to outlaw most abortions after 20 weeks. But in this campaign she promised to veto any bill to tighten New Hampshire’s current abortion limits, which allow for the procedure for any reason up to 24 weeks.
"I will fight with everything I have to defend New Hampshire's right to decide this issue and protect our law," she said during a debate on WMUR.
Ayotte’s relationship to former President Donald Trump was another flashpoint in the race. The pair have a complicated history. Ayotte renounced her support for Trump in 2016, during his first run for president, after the release of footage of Trump boasting of sexually assaulting women. But months later, after narrowly losing her Senate reelection bid to Democrat Maggie Hassan, Ayotte returned to Capitol Hill to assist the Trump administration during Neil Gorsuch’s Supreme Court confirmation.
This year, Ayotte endorsed Trump, while also keeping her distance, including skipping a campaign visit to New Hampshire Sunday by Vice Presidential nominee J.D. Vance.
"Where do you draw the line?" Craig asked Ayotte during the candidate final debate last week. "You support a convicted criminal for president. He's unfit to be president."
But Ayotte focused her attacks on Craig’s policy stances — including on whether to fully roll back the state’s tax on interest and dividends — and her ties to Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey.
