Democrats sweep NH Executive Council and Grab legislative majorities

Republicans drew New Hampshire’s Executive Council districts in 2022 to lock in their advantage, and they have held the five-member body ever since 2018. On Tuesday, voters handed all five seats to Democrats anyway, GBH reported, completing a Democratic wave that also delivered a projected supermajority in the state House and control of the state Senate.

It is the kind of split verdict that defines New Hampshire politics: voters reelected Republican Gov. Kelly Ayotte to a second term on the same night they stripped her party of the council that checks her power and handed Democrats big margins in both legislative chambers. For Ayotte, the next two years in Concord could create headaches as she seeks to push through her preferred policies.

A 5-0 Council Sweep on a Republican-Drawn Map

The Executive Council is one of the most obscure bodies in American state government and one of the most powerful in New Hampshire. Its five elected members approve state agency contracts, confirm commissioners and top gubernatorial appointments, and hold final say over every judicial nominee, including the next justice on the state Supreme Court. All five Democrats are projected to win their races, according to the Associated Press, meaning the 4-1 Republican majority becomes a 5-0 Democratic council when the new members are seated in January.

The council’s districts were redrawn in 2022 to heavily favor Republicans, yet Democrats appear to have flipped four seats. In the 4th District, Jim O’Connell, a Manchester school board member, defeated incumbent Republican Councilor John Stephen. In the 1st District, covering parts of Coos, Carroll and Belknap counties along with Dover and Durham, Democrat Luz Bay — a two-term state representative born in the Philippines with a doctorate in educational measurement and statistics — led five-term incumbent Joe Kenney, a retired Marine who served 14 years in the State House before joining the council in 2014. In the 3rd District, Portsmouth nurse Lisa Kennedy Sheldon, who holds a PhD in nursing, unseated three-term Republican Janet Stevens. And in the 5th District, former state Sen. Melanie Levesque of Brookline defeated David Wheeler, the council’s longest-serving member, who was seeking a ninth term.

An empty stately table — Photo: wgbh.org

Yahoo News reported the vote margins as of midday Wednesday: Bay led Kenney 52% to 48%; Karen Liot Hill, the council’s only Democrat and a former Lebanon mayor, beat Tobin Menard 65% to 35%; Sheldon took roughly 52% against Stevens’ 48%; O’Connell earned about 54% to Stephen’s 46%; and Levesque won roughly 54% to Wheeler’s 46%.

Karen Liot Hill said voters have made some very clear choices about what they want for their future, and they want something very different.

Historic: NH Dems celebrate sweeping the Executive Council with chants of "5-0"

292-107 in the House, 15-9 in the Senate

The wave ran deeper than the council. House Clerk Paul Smith announced Wednesday that Democrats may hold a 292-107 advantage over Republicans, with one Independent, though he cautioned that recounts and still-trickling vote tallies in tight races could shift the final balance. In the Senate, the Associated Press is forecasting a 15-9 Democratic margin — just short of the two-thirds, veto-proof majority needed to override a gubernatorial veto, with several races still uncalled.

House Democratic Leader Alexis Simpson said her caucus is ready to work.

“House Democrats are already rolling up our sleeves to bring costs down and deliver concrete results for Granite Staters,” Simpson said Wednesday, per NHPR. “We look forward to doing so in 2027 and beyond.”

For Ayotte, who bucked the trend to win reelection, the arithmetic is uncomfortable. A Democratic House supermajority and Senate control mean her preferred policies will face hostile committees and floor votes, while a unanimous Democratic council can block her nominees and reject her contracts.

Democrats sweep NH Executive Council and Grab legislative majorities — Photo: yahoo.com

The Supreme Court Vacancy Sits at the Center

The council’s new 5-0 Democratic lineup comes as the state Supreme Court faces a vacancy following an ethics probe. Former Chief Justice Gordon MacDonald resigned in September after an ethics probe, leaving a vacancy on the state’s highest court, and another justice, Anna Barbara Hantz Marconi, was convicted late last year of criminal solicitation connected to a conversation about an investigation into her husband. Ayotte has set no timetable for nominating MacDonald’s successor and has said any candidate would be vetted by her judicial selection commission.

Liot Hill urged Ayotte to wait until the new council is seated in January before naming a new chief justice, arguing Tuesday’s results show voters chose divided government.

“Ramming nominees through to take advantage of a short-term partisan gerrymandered advantage on the Executive Council would be, I think, really inconsistent with what the voters have said that they want,” she said, according to NHPR.

The incoming Democrats have described what a 5-0 council will look like. O’Connell said judicial appointments should be based on competency, not political affiliation. Liot Hill said the new council would not reject federal funds over ideological agendas and would likely approve contracts Republicans recently rejected, including Planned Parenthood contracts for cancer screenings, STD treatment and contraception, and a childcare contract with Pyramid Model Consortium for early education under the Granite Steps for Quality program.

GOP Cites Narrow Wins as Proof of Fair Elections

Republicans are not without their own mandate. Ayotte won a second term on the same ballot, and GOP officials can point to the 2022 map and years of 4-1 control as evidence the council was competitive, not rigged — four of the five Democratic wins came by single-digit margins, per the Yahoo News tallies. And with recounts likely in several House races and Senate contests still uncalled, the 292-107 and 15-9 figures are projections, not final certified counts. A handful of seats could narrow the Democratic edge in the Senate, where they sit one vote shy of veto-proof power.

A body Republicans controlled 4-1 since 2018 is about to be 5-0 Democratic, and the Legislature’s biggest chamber is set to be dominated by the party that lost the governor’s race. When the new council convenes in January, every contract, every commissioner, and every judge Ayotte puts forward will pass through Democratic hands.