The blue wave that won Democrats control of both chambers of Congress and governorships across the country did not stop Republican governors Phil Scott and Kelly Ayotte from winning reelection in Vermont and New Hampshire.
But several seats in the Upper Valley flipped from red to blue in both state and local races. Democrats also won majorities in the New Hampshire House, Senate and Executive Council. In Sullivan County, the party turned a 9-4 Republican advantage in the county’s House delegation into a 9-4 Democratic majority.
Voters who backed Scott pointed to his record of working with Democrats.
“I think he’s pretty realistic to understand that, to get things done for our state, you have to work with the other side,” said Rich Landry, 61, an independent who voted in Thetford.
“He’s able to get done a lot when working with the Democrats. And that’s not always easy,” said Joseph Sampson, 59, of Bradford.
Supporters of Amanda Janoo, the Democratic nominee to lead Vermont’s state government, said it was time for a change, since Scott has been governor since 2017.
“We need something more than managing the decline of our economy,” said Sherry Merrick, chair of the Orange County Democratic Committee.
In New Hampshire, Gus Storti, 73, an independent from Lebanon, said of Ayotte: “I think she’s done a great job for New Hampshire for the last couple of years.” Ayotte has held the corner office since 2025.
In a Grafton County legislative race, Democrat Paul Goundrey unseated Republican incumbent Linda Franz, winning 1,027 votes to her 896. Goundrey will represent Orford, Rumney and Wentworth in the State House.
A little to the south, Democrat Judith Thackaberry beat Republican incumbent George Grant by nearly 10 percentage points to represent Sunapee and Springfield.
In Vermont, Democrat/Progressive Monique Priestley unseated Republican incumbent John Benson in a narrow victory, about 5,600 votes to 5,200, rounded, to represent the Orange District in the Vermont Senate. The results are unofficial until the state canvass on Tuesday. Gov. Phil Scott appointed Benson to the seat in January after Sen. Larry Hart, who won it in 2024, resigned.
Merrick said she thinks the country’s discontent with the status quo drove Democratic voters to the polls. But Priestley deserves the bulk of the credit, Merrick said, because of her hard work during her campaign.
Priestley has represented the Orange-2 District in the Vermont House of Representatives since 2023, and Merrick said she is well-regarded in the county.
“A lot of people respect and like her,” Merrick said.
Democrat Lance Mills won Priestley’s open House seat, defeating Republican Nicholas DiLorenzo about 1,300 votes to 800, rounded.
Not all Upper Valley seats turned blue. In a family fight, Republican Tom Otterman beat Democrat Aiden Otterman and independent Susan Culp to represent Newbury, Groton and Topsham, 45% to 40% to 14%. Tom Otterman is Aiden Otterman’s great-uncle. Aiden Otterman, 18, would have been the youngest member of the Vermont House. Incumbent Joseph Parsons, an independent who was first elected as a Republican, did not run for reelection.
In New Hampshire, Republican incumbent Marie Louise Bjelobrk and Republican newcomer Greg Mathieson beat Democratic challenger Dustin Vigneault for two seats in the state House of Representatives representing Haverhill, Piermont, Benton, Landaff and Warren.
Sullivan County roundup
Four Republican state representatives lost to Democrats Tuesday, and Democrats also picked up an open seat, giving them a 9-4 majority in the Sullivan County delegation. Results were similar in two races for county commissioner: Democrats unseated two incumbent Republicans.
State Rep. Steve Smith, R-Charlestown, won his ninth two-year term in the House. Looking at other races, he thought the high price of heating oil, gas and diesel contributed to the Democrats’ wins.
Smith said that, in the past, state politics were often insulated from federal trends, but this year the Republicans made an error by bringing in celebrities as part of their strategy.
“I don’t want to be associated with that, and we got lumped in with the anger against the Washington, D.C., Republicans,” Smith said. He urges his colleagues to get back to basics; if they don’t look like politicians, he said, the party should fare better.
Republican incumbents George Grant of Sunapee, Margaret Drye of Plainfield, and Dale Girard and Wayne Hemingway, both of Claremont, all lost their House seats. Girard was elected as a Democrat in 2024 and switched to the Republican Party this year.
Grant, the District 5 state rep for Sunapee and Springfield, lost to newcomer Judith Thackaberry 1,524 to 1,253.
In the District 8 race for two House seats representing nine towns, incumbent Democrat Hope Damon of Croydon was reelected and will be joined by Washington Democrat Sam Deering. He outpolled Republicans Jon Stone of Claremont and Cathy Peschke of Croydon to replace Republican Michael Aron of Acworth, who did not seek reelection. Damon had 5,297 votes and Deering 4,949. Stone, a former state rep, finished with 4,192 votes and Peschke 3,868.
Drye, the Plainfield rep seeking her third two-year term, lost to Newport Democrat Larry Schissel in District 7, representing Charlestown, Newport, Plainfield, Unity and Cornish. Drye won in Charlestown, 900 to 850, and Unity, 398 to 260, but Schissel won in his hometown with 1,190 votes to 1,128, Plainfield, 924 to 459, and Cornish, 542 to 399, for an overall total of 3,766 to Drye’s 3,284.
For three House seats in Sullivan District 6, representing Claremont and Croydon, Republicans Girard, the Claremont mayor, city councilor Hemingway and Emily Sandblade lost to incumbent Democrat John Cloutier of Claremont and newcomers Lisa Gosselin and Chris Cogswell, who is also a city councilor. The Democrats piled up a large margin in Claremont, overcoming the Republicans’ lead in Croydon. Gosselin earned 2,435 votes, Cloutier 2,400 and Cogswell 2,258. Girard came fourth with 2,009 votes, followed by Hemingway with 1,925 and Sandblade with 1,745.
Cloutier, first elected in 1992, said he heard many comments that Republicans voted for Democrats because they were “fed up” with their party.
“They wanted to send their party a message,” Cloutier said. “That is the sense I got. We got votes from fired-up, ready-to-go Democrats, but others came from Republicans who were just fed up with what they felt was the wrong direction the Republican Party was leading the nation and the state.”
Reached by phone Wednesday, Damon said the strong Democratic showing is a consequence of Republicans failing to address affordability, property taxes and education funding.
Girard said Wednesday that New Hampshire Republicans got ensnared in the sour mood across the country.
“I think the electorate was angry at Washington and that affected races down ballot,” Girard said, specifically citing President Donald Trump.
Republicans held on to all three seats in District 3, covering Newport, Charlestown and Unity. The incumbents defeated Democrats Jeff Kessler of Newport and Lisa DeBartolomao and Timothy Fitzpatrick of Charlestown.
Smith, the deputy speaker of the House, finished last among the candidates in his hometown but made up the difference in Newport and Unity to earn 2,185 votes. Republican Skip Rollins of Newport had the most votes in the district with 2,507. The third Republican incumbent, Walter Spilsbury of Charlestown, earned 2,166 votes, followed by Kessler (2,062), DeBartolomao (2,035) and Fitzpatrick (1,930).
Incumbent Brian Sullivan defeated Joel Hutchins for the District 1 seat in Grantham, 1,476 to 590. Plainfield Democrat Jenny Ramsey won the open District 2 seat serving Cornish and Plainfield over Michael Belanger of Cornish (1,543 to 769). In the race for District 4, where Republican Judy Aron of Acworth did not seek reelection, Republican Ron Rule defeated Democrat Christopher Salmon 1,340 to 1,090 in the five-town district of Acworth, Langdon, Goshen, Lempster and Washington.
In the race to replace Republican Sen. Ruth Ward in Senate District 8, Republican Jim Creighton of Antrim defeated Democrat David Trumble of Weare, about 12,500 votes to 12,200, rounded. A recount request is possible before a 5 p.m. Friday deadline.
Incumbent commissioners defeated
In the races for the two county commissioner seats on the ballot this year, Democrat Jim Bednar of Springfield defeated incumbent Republican Bennie Nelson of Newport for the District 2 seat, and Claremont Democrat Benjamin Nelson beat six-year incumbent Republican Joe Osgood of Claremont for the District 1 seat. Republican George Hebert, the third commissioner, was not on the ballot.
Bednar received 9,421 votes to Bennie Nelson’s 8,503, and Benjamin Nelson defeated Osgood 10,059 to 8,640.
“People were angry,” Bennie Nelson said by phone Wednesday while he was out pulling up campaign signs when asked about the results.
Bennie Nelson said a poor economy often hurts incumbents, and that was the case this year in many state races. Add in the anger toward Trump, a Republican, and this is the result, he said.
“Trump energized Democrats,” he said. “When the economy is not good, people want change and they vote out incumbents.”
Bennie Nelson said he feels he is leaving the county in a “good place” with the $75 million nursing home project essentially completed.
Benjamin Nelson said his campaign effort to attend candidate forums and knock on doors was a major factor in his winning.
“Voters appreciate you being in their community talking to them and showing up for them,” said Benjamin Nelson, who owns a spice and dry goods store in Claremont with his wife.
Standing outside the polls in Newport, a traditionally Republican town, on Tuesday, Benjamin Nelson said many Republicans said they were voting for him. He lost in Newport to Osgood but only by about 80 votes.
“Now we have to deliver results for everybody,” Benjamin Nelson said of Democrats. “Now the real job actually begins. We need to figure out the property tax issue, education funding. If we can deliver results in Concord, we will be popular.”
In other contested county races, Democrat Loren David Howard defeated incumbent Republican Rodd Ward for register of probate, 9,857 to 8,502, and Republican Renee Simino, the incumbent register of deeds, defeated Democrat Je Austin, 9,540 to 8,966.
In uncontested county races, Christine Hilliard was reelected as county attorney, Michael Sanderson was reelected county treasurer and James Yazinski was elected sheriff.
School tax cap
The school tax cap question on the ballot in each town or city needed 60% of the vote across each school district to pass. In districts with more than one town, the votes from all towns were added together, so a town’s own result did not always decide the outcome.
The measure cleared that bar in the single-town districts of Claremont (60.8%), Goshen (61.2%), Lempster (66.2%), Newport (61.7%), Unity (71.7%) and Washington (65.3%). It fell short in Croydon (58.6%) and failed to get a majority in Plainfield, Grantham, Cornish and Sunapee.
Charlestown (68%), Langdon (67.9%) and Acworth (59.9%) are part of the five-town Fall Mountain district, where the cap passed about 3,200 votes to 2,100, rounded, or 60.2%, according to unofficial results. Springfield voted 53.4% in favor, but the cap failed across the seven-town Kearsarge district, about 4,400 votes to 4,600, rounded, or 49%.
If adopted, the cap applies to the 2027-28 and 2028-29 budget years. The school property tax levy may not grow beyond the prior year’s amount, adjusted for inflation and new construction, and SAU central office spending cannot exceed 6% of total school district appropriations. Bond payments do not count toward either limit. At the annual school district meeting, any article that would exceed the cap needs a 60% vote to pass.
Patrick O’Grady can be reached at pogclmt@gmail.com.
