Ayotte is a veteran of New Hampshire Republican politics first serving as state attorney general in and then elected as US senator in . She was defeated in by thenGov. Maggie Hassan in an extremely close race losing by just over votes. As a senator Ayotte had a reputation as a bipartisan dealmaker but in her reelection bid she struggled to navigate a political environment dominated by Donald Trumps first campaign for president. Ayotte will first have to advance in a GOP primary that already includes the longtime former New Hampshire Senate President Chuck Morse who unsuccessfully ran for Senate in . The Democratic mayor of Manchester Joyce Craig has also declared her candidacy. The race provides an opening for Democrats to gain control over New Hampshires governorship. Chris Sununu a frequent Trump critic won reelection by large margins in and while Democrats won other statewide races on the ticket. Sununus surprise announcement last week that he would not seek a fifth twoyear term set off what is likely to be a competitive election in the Granite State that could draw several contenders. Im running for governor because New Hampshire is one election away from becoming Massachusetts from becoming something we are not Ayotte said in a statement. During that election Ayotte suffered a highprofile stumble when she attempted to walk back comments she made during a debate calling Trump a role model. She ultimately said she would writein Mike Pence on her ballot that year in the wake of the revelations from the infamous Access Hollywood tape. In a statement, Ayotte says she is running because she wants to make sure New Hampshire does not become something it does not want to be: “a place where people are afraid to go to the doctor or go out to work for a living and have a job that doesn’t provide them with a sense of self-worth or a sense that they can do anything for anyone else but themselves” She also said that she would vote for Mike Pence in the 2016 presidential election even though she was initially supportive of Trumps bid albeit hesitantly Ayotte ultimately decided to write in Mike Pence as a write-in candidate in that year’s election. She said she will vote for Pence if he is the Republican nominee for president in 2016 and she will write in her own name if she wins the primary. The former senator will face off against two other Republicans in the primary for the Republican nomination for governor in the state’s top job. The Republican governor in New Hampshire has been re-elected to a fifth term in a landslide victory in 2012. The Democratic governor in that election won by a large margin in a race that could give Democrats control of the governorship for the first time in more than a decade. The winner of the race will face a Republican who has been in office since 2008 and is expected to run for re-election in the next two years. The current governor is Republican Gov. John H. Hoeffler who was elected to a second term in 2012 and served two terms as governor in a term that ended in 2013.
Sen. Kelly Ayotte launches campaign for governor of New Hampshire. Ayotte is a two-term senator from the state. She is running against Gov. Chris Sununu.
