WEST LEBANON — Former state Rep. Lynne Blankenbeker, R-Concord, said on Thursday that she is again running for the U.S. House, setting up another contested GOP primary in the party’s attempt to unseat U.S. Rep. Annie Kuster, D-N.H.
“I will support President Trump to deliver real solutions to fix our broken health care system, stop illegal immigration, protect our Second Amendment rights, and ensure our military has the resources needed to keep America safe, because it’s time we elect a Congresswoman who will fight for New Hampshire,” Blankenbeker said in a news release announcing her candidacy.
Blankenbeker ran for the 2nd Congressional District House seat in a crowded Republican primary in 2018, placing third behind then-state Rep. Steven Negron, R-Nashua, and Stewart Levenson, a former Veterans Affairs physician. Negron had 11,195 votes, to 10,952 for Levenson and 9,858 for Blankenbeker.
Negron, an Air Force veteran, also is running again and issued a statement on Thursday that read, “I welcome Lynne into the race for Congress again. Anyone has the right to pay $50 and run. Our focus is Ann Kuster.”
A captain in the Navy Reserves, Blankenbeker worked as a military nurse and also as a health care policy adviser at the Pentagon and Defense Health Headquarters, according to her campaign website.
Blankenbeker was deployed to the Middle East in 1990 during operations Desert Storm and Desert Shield, working as an operating room and trauma-flight nurse, and also deployed during Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003, according to her campaign website.
She later earned a law degree at what was then Franklin Pierce Law School and won election to the New Hampshire House in a special election in 2009. She left the Legislature after being recalled to active duty and deployed to Afghanistan in 2011.
Kuster is in her fourth term and is a member of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. She reported $1.6 million cash on hand in her campaign war chest as of the end of June.
The district includes western and northern New Hampshire and also stretches east and south to include such cities as Concord, Nashua and Salem.
John P. Gregg can be reached at jgregg@vnews.com.