New Hampshire’s Lower-Level Elections: Who Got Ousted and Who Survived

Former Department of Health and Human Services Commissioner John Stephen won a crowded Republican primary Tuesday to succeed executive adviser Ted Gatsas, defeating a former congressional candidate, a former state senator and a former vice chairman of the state Republican Party.

Stephen, who served as commissioner from 2003 to 2007 and now runs a consulting firm, ran on a message of fiscal responsibility and won the support of incumbent executive councillors Dave Wheeler and Joe Kenney, as well as House Majority Leader Jason Osborne. Gatsas, a former mayor of Manchester, is stepping down.

Stephen won 37 percent of the vote, edging out Robert Burns, who unsuccessfully ran as the Republican candidate to unseat U.S. Rep. Annie Kuster in 2022 and has twice run for the District 4 seat. Burns won 22.72 percent of the vote, according to Associated Press results.

Stephen’s other competitors included Terese Bastarache, formerly Terese Grinell, an activist who opposes mandatory vaccinations and COVID-19 mitigations; John Reagan, a former state senator from Deerfield; Ross Terrio, a former state representative and councilman from Manchester; and Ryan Terrell, a former conservative member of the state Board of Education and former vice chairman of the state Republican Party.

The Executive Council District 4 wasn’t the only contested primary for the Executive Council. And it joined the list of other House and Senate primaries on Tuesday. Here’s how some of those lower-level primaries turned out.

Executive Council: Warmington ready to fight for success

Both parties held primaries to determine who would compete for Executive Council District 2, which is currently held by Democrat Cinde Warmington. Warmington ran for governor and lost the primary to Joyce Craig on Tuesday; her seat, which is overwhelmingly Democratic, is open.

In the Democratic primary, Lebanon City Councilwoman Karen Liot Hill defeated Michael Liberty, a tech entrepreneur who founded an anti-fraud app called Signifyd. Hill won with 56 percent of the vote.

Kim Strathdee won the Republican Party nomination in the same district, defeating Mary Deak with 56 percent of the vote.

Meanwhile, Melanie Levesque, a former state senator, won the Democratic primary for District 5 against Nashua Councilwoman Shoshanna Kelly. Levesque will seek to unseat Republican Councilwoman David Wheeler in November.

Republicans currently dominate the council by a 4-1 ratio.

State Senate: Gannon defends his seat, Reardon advances

Of New Hampshire’s 24 Senate seats, only a handful have had competitive primaries.

But it was the Republican primary that attracted the most attention: Emily Phillips’ campaign to unseat incumbent Senator Bill Gannon.

Phillips, a state representative from Fremont, had tried to challenge Gannon as a libertarian, taking a strong anti-immigration stance, supporting lighter drug penalties and school choice policies such as education freedom bills. But after a flood of negative ads and Phillips’ controversial choice to support Democratic Rep. Ellen Read in her own primary, Phillips fell short of the vote, winning just 33 percent to Gannon’s 67 percent.

After Hopkinton state Sen. Becky Whitley resigned from her seat after a brief congressional campaign, three Democrats competed for the District 15 seat, seen as a safe seat for the party. Tara Reardon, a former state representative and current county commissioner, won over state representatives Rebecca McWilliams and Angela Brennan.

Longtime Democratic state Rep. Pat Long defeated Sean Parr, a music professor at St. Anselm and a Manchester school board member, to win the Democratic primary in the 20th District.

State House: Eight Republican Incumbents Unseated in Primary Elections

Perhaps more interesting than who won the New Hampshire House of Representatives primary was who lost.

Eight Republican incumbents and one Democrat will not be returned to the House next year, barring some unlikely write-in campaigns after Tuesday’s primary. Many of the incumbents who were voted out are former longtime representatives.

The slate includes Republican Reps. Richard Beaudoin of Gilford; Michael Costable of Freedom; Kevin Pratt and Tim Cahill of Raymond; Josh Yokela of Fremont; Jason Janvrin of Seabrook; Scott Wallace of Danville; and David Bickford of New Durham. On the Democratic side, Mike Cahill was ousted in Newmarket, defeated by Democrats Ellen Read and Toni Weinstein.

Several former representatives have tried to return to office but have been rejected by the same communities that once elected them. This includes former Republican Reps. Dawn Johnson of Laconia; Warner Horn of Franklin; Betty Gay of Salem; and Bill Fowler of Seabrook, as well as former Rep. Ivy Vann of Peterborough.

It can be difficult to determine why some House candidates lose their primaries. In many cities, voters can choose multiple candidates from a larger list. Incumbents can fail the primary without a clear reason and despite no attacks from opponents.

New Hampshire Bulletin is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) charitable organization. The New Hampshire Bulletin maintains editorial independence. For questions, contact editor Dana Wormald: [email protected]. Follow the New Hampshire Bulletin on Facebook AND X.