Defeated GOP ex-Sen. Kelly Ayotte to run for New Hampshire governor

Seven years after losing a bid for reelection, Republican former New Hampshire U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte announced Monday she will seek her party’s nomination for governor of the state in 2024. Incumbent Republican Gov. Chris Sununu announced July 19 that he will not seek a fifth two-year term.

“I’m running for Governor because New Hampshire is one election away from becoming Massachusetts — from becoming something we are not,” Ayotte claimed in her announcement.

A former New Hampshire attorney general, Ayotte was elected to the Senate in 2010. Though she touted her bipartisanship, her voting record was consistently right-wing, opposing gun safety, reproductive rights, LGBTQ+ equality, Obamacare, and equal pay protections for women. She was defeated by Democrat Maggie Hassan in 2016.

Ayotte has worked against reproductive rights, telling the New Hampshire Union Leader in September 2009 that she supported the right to choose an abortion “only in cases of rape, incest or a medical emergency such as where the life of the mother is at issue.”

The “Family Values” section of her 2010 campaign page read, “Kelly’s unmatched record on life has earned her the recent endorsements of the Susan B. Anthony List and the New Hampshire Citizens for Life, the state chapter of the National Right to Life organization.”

As a senator, she co-sponsored the 2013 Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which would have instituted a federal ban on abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy based on a debunked claim that fetuses feel pain at that stage of gestation.

Ayotte repeatedly voted to defund Planned Parenthood. She backed unsuccessful efforts in 2012 to eliminate a requirement that health insurance plans cover contraception, calling the mandate “an unprecedented affront to religious liberty. This is not a women’s rights issue. This is a religious liberty issue.”

In 2012 and 2014, Ayotte voted against the Paycheck Fairness Act, which would have made it easier for victims of sex discrimination to fight back against their employers. According to a 2014 Boston Globe report, she claimed the bill would be a giveaway to trial lawyers and lead to too many lawsuits. In a floor speech that year, she incorrectly asserted that addressing the pay gap between men and women might mean that employers could not offer merit pay.

Ayotte has a long record of opposing LGBTQ+ equality. In a 2010 Senate debate, flagged by the progressive super PAC American Bridge 21st Century, she opposed both same-sex marriage and adoption rights, explaining, “I certainly support traditional marriage, and I think traditional families are what’s appropriate.” Three years later, she opposed federal marriage equality, saying states should decide.

Her current campaign page contains anti-transgender language, promising, “Kelly will not be afraid to hold educators and administrators accountable when they inappropriately bring politics or gender ideology into the classroom.”

As a 2010 candidate, Ayotte emphasized her pro-gun positions and alliance with the National Rifle Association. Her campaign website said: “Kelly is a strong and passionate supporter of our citizens’ individual right to keep and bear arms. Kelly supports nationwide recognition of concealed carry licenses in accordance with the Full Faith and Credit Clause of the United States Constitution.”

After a 2013 mass shooting at a Newtown, Connecticut, elementary school left 20 children and six adults dead, Ayotte continued to side with the NRA, voting against proposals to prohibit semi-automatic assault weapons and high-capacity magazines as well as a bipartisan proposal to require background checks for all gun purchasers. She falsely claimed the background check proposal might lead to a national gun registry and evaded town hall questions about gun violence prevention. Her net approval ratings dropped 15%, according to Public Policy Polling surveys before and after the votes, in a state where voters strongly favored universal background checks.

She continued to oppose gun safety legislation after more mass shootings in 2015, casting a vote against blocking firearm purchases by suspected terrorists in the aftermath of a deadly rampage in San Bernardino, California.

Her position does not appear to have changed. “As Governor, Kelly will defend our constitutional carry status and block the Biden Administration’s efforts to infringe on the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding Granite State gun owners,” says her 2024 campaign site.

According to the website HealthReformVotes.org, Ayotte voted at least three times in favor of efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare.

As a 2010 candidate, she falsely told the editorial board of Foster’s Daily Democrat that scrapping the law would reduce the budget deficit and touted her pledge to the Club for Growth to “sponsor and support legislation to repeal any federal health care takeover passed in 2010, and replace it with real reforms that lower health care costs without growing government.”

Those efforts failed and, as of March 2023, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services estimated that more than 40 million Americans have received insurance coverage under the law.

Like dozens of other Senate Republicans, Ayotte voted in January 2013 against a $50.5 billion funding package for disaster relief for those harmed by Hurricane Sandy, calling it too bloated. The vote came just months after she asked President Barack Obama to provide disaster relief for New Hampshire in the wake of the same storm.

Ayotte voted in March 2013 for a budget amendment that would have required all citizens to provide a government-issued photo ID to vote in federal elections. A year earlier, the Brennan Center for Justice had issued a report finding that voter ID laws disenfranchise millions of Americans, especially poorer voters and people of color.

She also played a key role in creating the current right-wing majority on the Supreme Court. Following the death of Justice Antonin Scalia in February 2016, Ayotte sided with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in his scheme to block Obama from filling the seat, tweeting:

We’re in the midst of a consequential presidential election year, and Americans deserve an opportunity to weigh in given the significant implications this nomination could have for the Supreme Court and our country for decades to come. I believe the Senate should not move forward with the confirmation process until the American people have spoken by electing a new president.

After helping to block Obama’s nominee, now-Attorney General Merrick Garland, for nearly a year — and losing her own November 2016 reelection race — Ayotte served as what her campaign website calls President Donald Trump’s “sherpa” in the successful effort to get Neil Gorsuch confirmed to the same seat.

Additionally, in April 2017, Ayotte joined the board of directors of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, the parent company of Fox News. “It’s an honor to join the Board, and I’m looking forward to working with Rupert Murdoch and his talented team at News Corp,” she said in a press release. “By providing high quality news, books, digital real estate services and more to people around the world, News Corp plays such an important role in keeping people informed and engaged while focusing on delivering long-term value for investors.”

New Hampshire Democratic Party Chair Ray Buckley slammed Ayotte’s candidacy in a press release on Monday:

Kelly Ayotte is an anti-abortion extremist who would bring the destructive DC Republican style of politics to Concord. Ayotte was a loyal acolyte to Mitch McConnell always putting his agenda ahead of what was best for Granite Staters. She filibustered common sense gun reform in the wake of Sandy Hook. She led an unprecedented obstruction of judicial nominees. She opposed same sex marriage at a time when New Hampshire led the the way toward the right side of history. When she lost her last election so many years ago after a single term in the senate, she abandoned the Granite State in favor of multiple high paying corporate boards, only to return once she filled her now flush bank account.

Ayotte joins a Republican primary field that already includes unsuccessful 2022 Senate candidate Chuck Morse.

New Hampshire Executive Councilor Cinde Warmington and Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig are seeking the Democratic nomination.

The Cook Political Report rated the open-seat race a “Toss Up” on July 19 and called it the Democratic Party’s “best pickup opportunity on the 2024 gubernatorial board.”

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.