The Newmarket man who launched what he admits was a “Hail Mary” run for governor has fallen well short of getting enough signatures to appear on November’s ballot as an Independent.
But he hopes this will be more of a beginning than an ending.
“I realized that we needed to build a better coalition,” said Jonathan Kiper, a Newmarket businessman and former town councilor who ran a long-shot bid as a Democrat for governor in 2024 and was hoping to do it again this year as an Independent. Kiper received only a few hundred of the 3,000 signatures of registered voters needed by Wednesday’s deadline to become an official candidate.
He says he won’t try for a write-in campaign, partly because he doesn’t want to be blamed for taking votes away from Democrat Cinde Warmington in her uphill race against Gov. Kelly Ayotte.
Instead, he has filed papers with the Secretary of State’s office and created a Political Action Committee called Community First Coalition, with a board of directors and some of the volunteers from his short-lived campaign.
“Frankly, this is what I should have done first,” he said. “Lesson learned.”
The PAC is just getting going; it doesn’t have a web presence yet. Kiper said it will help candidates who favor economic policies like those he ran on, which are often labelled as progressive and favored far more by Democrats than Republicans.
However, Kiper’s not afraid to cross party lines. “We will support Democrats, independents and even Republicans if they align with our goals.”
Key issues range from increasing the minimum wage to targeting the shortage of affordable housing.
“We’re going to focus on economic issues, not get bogged down in the social wars that are sucking a lot of the energy out of the room,” he said. “I’m not worried about a trans kid playing sports, more worried about a trans kid that’s homeless.”
The PAC is starting small, at the level of state representative, school board or city council, where a small amount of money or expertise can make a big difference. “We’ve worked with 3 or 4 candidates, helping with websites, social media, graphics – things the (Democratic) party should be doing but isn’t doing.”
Kiper, 43, said he was unsure of any New Hampshire effect from recent electoral success by progressive candidates such as New York City Mayor Zohran Mandami or several Midwestern candidates who succeeded in this week’s Democratic primaries. “Every state is different,” he said.
But he added the pain from economic issues like rising inequality is breaking through some partisan divides, forcing people on both the left and right — especially younger people — to look beyond recent arguments and find solutions.
