New Hampshire Executive Council Looks Entirely Blue on Election Night

New Hampshire Executive Council Looks Entirely Blue on Election Night

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New Hampshire’s Executive Council Poised for Democratic Sweep as All Four GOP Incumbents Trail

At 11 p.m. on Election Night, New Hampshire’s 4-1 Republican-controlled Executive Council stood on the brink of a complete partisan flip, with all four Republican incumbents trailing their Democratic challengers as vote counts rolled in, InDepthNH.org reported. The five-member body, which wields outsized power over state contracts, judicial nominations, and decade-long infrastructure planning, could soon be entirely blue.

The council’s authority stretches deep into state government. It approves every gubernatorial nomination for department commissioners and judges, signs off on all state contracts of $10,000 or more, and maps out road projects ten years into the future. Each of the five councilors represents roughly one-fifth of the state’s population, or approximately 263,000 citizens, giving the panel direct sway over how taxpayer money flows through Concord.

District by District: The Numbers Tell the Story

In District 2, the lone incumbent Democrat, Karen Liot Hill of Lebanon, was cruising toward re-election against Republican Tobin Menard of Newport, holding 63.6 percent of the vote with 54 percent of ballots counted. Hill’s commanding lead suggested the safest seat on the council remained firmly in Democratic hands.

Nh executive council district map

The real drama unfolded in the four Republican-held districts. In District 5, former State Senator Melanie Levesque of Nashua led incumbent David Wheeler of Milford 55.5 percent to 44.5 percent with 57 percent of votes tallied. Wheeler had held the seat since defeating Debora Pignatelli in 2021, continuing a back-and-forth rivalry with Pignatelli that had defined the southwestern district for years.

District 1 saw Executive Councilor Joe Kenney of Wakefield trailing Democrat Luz Bay of Durham, with Bay ahead 53.2 percent to 46.8 percent at the 57 percent reporting mark. In District 3, Councilor Janet Stevens of Rye found herself behind Lisa Kennedy Sheldon of Portsmouth, 46.6 percent to 53.4 percent, with 70 percent of the vote in. And in District 4, Councilor John Stephen of Manchester trailed Jim O’Connell, also of Manchester, 46.7 percent to 53.3 percent with 71 percent of district votes counted.

None of the five Democratic challengers had previously served on the Executive Council. Of that group, only Levesque brought Statehouse experience to the race, having served in the State Senate from December 5, 2018, to December 2, 2020, becoming the first African American to serve in that chamber. She had also represented Hillsborough’s 5th district in the House from 2006 to 2010.

Experience vs. Change

The sweep, if it holds, would mark a dramatic shift in a body that Republicans have controlled with a 4-1 advantage. Only Levesque had served in Concord, and none had sat on the council itself.

New Hampshire Executive Council Looks Entirely Blue on Election Night

What happens next matters because of what the council controls. A Democratic majority would give the party control over every judicial appointment the governor makes, every major state contract, and the ten-year road plan that shapes infrastructure spending across the Granite State. For businesses bidding on state work and towns waiting on highway projects, the partisan makeup of this council is not abstract politics—it determines whose priorities get funded.

Final certification of the results will determine whether the 4-1 Republican council becomes a 5-0 Democratic one, reshaping the balance of power in New Hampshire’s executive branch for the next two years.

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