With federal, statewide and local results available, there’s now space to consider what they say about voter priorities and how these political preferences might impact the future of New Hampshire.
Uncertainty for Ayotte
Republican Kelly Ayotte has secured her second two-year term as New Hampshire governor after defeating Democrat Cinde Warmington, who served on the executive council for two terms and ran for governor in 2024.
AP called the race at 12:42 a.m. Wednesday. With 90% of the votes counted, Ayotte took the lead with 51% of statewide support, though Warmington trailed not far behind with 47% support.
While Ayotte has proven her popularity is strong enough to secure two more years in the role, this term may come with heightened opposition.
The Democratic majority across the New Hampshire House, Senate and Executive Council means that Ayotte’s veto power could be overridden.
This year, Ayotte rejected a total of 33 bills, covering a range of topics from separation in bathrooms by biological sex to proposed changes to animal care laws.
The number of vetoes constituted a state record for a governor whose own party had control over the state legislature. On veto day in August, the Senate and House met to consider 31 of those vetoes and ended up overriding seven of them.
With representation in the state legislature now shifting blue, Ayotte may see even more opposition to her future vetoes.
Upper Valley divided on tax cap
Question 2 on the New Hampshire ballot this year asked voters if they wished to impose a tax cap on school district taxes that would only allow for increases consistent with inflation and capital projects.
Each town voted independently, and the measure only passed if it reached a 60% majority. For districts that cross town lines, it passed if 60% of total voters across the district’s towns voted in favor.
The Upper Valley towns with single-town school districts that denied the tax cap include Cornish, Grantham, Hanover, Lebanon and Plainfield.
Needing a 60% majority to pass, it failed in Croydon, Lyme and Orford — each with individual school districts — despite garnering a majority vote.
Sunapee, another town with its own district, has yet to publish its results.
The Mascoma Valley School District that includes Enfield, Canaan, Grafton, Dorchester and Orange in the Upper Valley, voted not to pass the cap for their district. About 73% of Grafton voters approved it, the highest support of any Upper Valley town. Still, it didn’t gain 60% of votes across the entire district of five towns.
SAU 6, encompassing Claremont and Unity, voted yes on the tax cap. Unity had the second-highest support among Upper Valley towns, at 71%.
Hanover showed the weakest support for the tax cap, just under 35%, and as a single-town district, the measure failed. Plainfield had a similar outcome, as it failed with 42% support.
In SAU 60, which includes Charlestown and four non-Upper Valley towns, the tax cap failed after garnering 49% support across the district. In SAU 23, which includes Haverhill, Piermont and three non-Upper Valley towns, it passed with just over 60% support across the whole district.
A moderate faceoff for U.S. Senator
In a historic win, Democrat Chris Pappas secured New Hampshire’s U.S. Senate seat against Republican John E. Sununu, and will be the first openly gay man serving in the Senate.
AP called the race at 8:20 p.m. Tuesday evening.
With 93% of the votes counted, Pappas took the lead with 56% of the votes, and Sununu fell short with 42% of the votes.
Despite each candidate running campaigns that promoted relatively moderate perspectives, their attack ads against each other didn’t hold back on accusing one another of corruption.
Pappas accused Sununu of working in tandem with Trump, and of being named in the Epstein files.
Sununu called out Pappas for a “No” vote on a working family tax cut that passed regardless, and other spending stances.
“He listened to Washington party politics instead of thinking about New Hampshire values,” Sununu said in a July 4 video.
Sununu did attempt to separate himself from Trump, stating that he’s never met him, and did not support his presidential candidacy. But even in a relatively mixed — or purple — state, his association as a member of the Grand Old Party could have been enough to write him off for some voters.
Prentiss sweeps D5, other state senate races narrow
Democrat Sue Prentiss, of Lebanon, triumphed over her competition in Republican Conrad Schoeffter, of Plainfield, for the District 5 Senate seat.
AP called the race at 11:23 p.m. on election night.
With 95% of the votes counted, Prentiss earned 75% of the votes, with Schoeffter trailing a ways behind at 25% of the votes.
Prentiss has been historically popular, earning, 66% of votes in 2024, 69% in 2022 and 66% in 2020.
The seat represents the Upper Valley towns of Canaan, Cornish, Enfield, Grantham, Groton, Hanover, Lebanon, Lyme, New London, Orford, Plainfield and Springfield. Prentiss has held the position since 2020.
As of Wednesday afternoon, AP had yet to call a winner for District 1, with 77% of votes in, and District 8, with 91% of votes in.
For District 1, incumbent Republican David Rochefort has led against a strong challenger, with Cathleen Fountain less than 10 percentage points behind him.
The seat represents the Upper Valley town of Haverhill, among dozens of others outside the region.
District 8 turned out to be the narrowest; Republican candidate Joe Creighton leads Democrat David Trumble by just over 1 percentage point.
Incumbent Ruth Ward, who secured the seat for five terms, opted not to seek reelection for the seat representing Claremont, Newport, Croydon, Charlestown, Sunapee and Unity.
Trumble fell to Ward back in 2024. In this race, he was behind by less than 300 votes, with 49.2% to Creighton’s 50.8% of the votes, based on the 76% of votes counted.
Which party came out on top locally?
Considering the statewide races for Governor, U.S. Senate and U.S. House, some Upper Valley towns remained red, while others kept blue.
The geography of who won where may speak to political preferences regionally.
Lebanon, Hanover and Lyme, all bordering Vermont, had the strongest blue wave, with all three candidates — Warmington, Pappas and Goodlander — garnering a minimum of 70% of voter support in each town.
Hanover supported Goodlander, with 88% support from voters, Pappas with 87% support and Warmington with 80% support.
Other towns voting blue in all three races include Plainfield, Piermont, Orford, Claremont, Charlestown, Canaan, Enfield and Grantham.
In Croydon, Lily Tang Williams saw high support in the race for the U.S. House seat, earning 75% of the votes.
Otherwise, the Republican candidates across the three races — including Ayotte, Williams and Sununu — earned less than 70% support in any Upper Valley town.
The towns that stayed red across all three races include Haverhill, Grafton and Croydon.
All other New Hampshire Upper Valley towns saw a mix of red or blue across these three races.
