Education funding, property taxes and a deep unease over national politics dominated conversations outside polling places from Lebanon to Newport as Upper Valley voters headed to the polls Tuesday for New Hampshire’s primary elections.
Lois Rowland, 82, of Etna, summed up the mood many voters described as they arrived at Hanover High School. “The world is going crazy. It’s chaotic. It’s not good,” Rowland said. “A lot’s at stake.” Voting, she added, is “a responsibility for every citizen.”
Other voters pointed to the cost of public schools and rising property taxes, women’s reproductive rights and the women on the ballot, and a broader fear about the health of American democracy. Some came looking for change in Washington, others for a return to civility — and several said that whatever the result, showing up was the point.
The most closely watched contest is the fight to succeed retiring Democratic U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen. On the Republican side, former U.S. Sen. John E. Sununu, endorsed by President Donald Trump, is competing with former Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown. On the Democratic side, U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas, the front-runner, faces a challenge from his left in progressive Karishma Manzur. Gov. Kelly Ayotte, a Republican, is seeking a second two-year term with no major primary opposition, and Democrat Cinde Warmington is running unopposed for her party’s nomination.
The federal race directly on Upper Valley ballots is the 2nd Congressional District, which covers the western and northern parts of the state. Democratic U.S. Rep. Maggie Goodlander, finishing her first term, faces a primary challenge from her left, most prominently from state Rep. Paige Beauchemin of Nashua. On the Republican side, Lily Tang Williams, the 2024 nominee who narrowly lost to Goodlander, is seeking a rematch against a field that includes Victor Orlando of Hollis.
Locally, most Upper Valley legislative races feature a single candidate from each party, setting up November matchups rather than primary fights. The main exception is in Sullivan County’s floterial House District 8 — covering Claremont, Croydon, Springfield and Sunapee — where three Republicans, Jon Stone of Claremont, Catherine Peschke of Croydon and Sebastian Zyzdorf of Goshen, are competing for two seats.
Those contests turn largely on school funding, property taxes and the state’s education freedom account program, the voucher-like accounts that let families spend public money on private-school tuition and homeschooling. Elsewhere, the ballots are setting up fall races: Democrat Ella Barrett faces Republican Bradley Macrae for the open seat representing Canaan, Dorchester and Orange, and Democrat Jenny Ramsey faces Republican Michael Belanger in Cornish and Plainfield.
Lebanon: ‘Lesser of the evils’
At Ward 3 on Tuesday morning, Tony Lieras, 72, voted in the Republican primary and said he hopes to see Ayotte re-elected. “I think we need that. I don’t agree with everything she does,” Lieras said. “Lesser of the evils, I guess.” He said he supports Sununu for Senate but would have liked to see Republican candidates in the local races from Grafton County. “We need it at the city level, we need it at the county level,” he said.
Barbara Sibun, a Democratic voter in Ward 3, said she was glad to see someone challenging Ayotte in the governor’s race, but that she is not confident the Democratic Senate candidates can defeat Sununu in November. “The name carries weight,” she said.
Dr. Fae Kayarian, 28, a Dartmouth Health physician, voted in the Democratic primary alongside her friend Emma O’Hearn, 30. Kayarian said she has been disappointed in Ayotte’s lack of focus on women’s reproductive rights, and that in the Senate race she hopes to see Manzur, the newcomer challenging Pappas from the left, advance.
Enfield: ‘I don’t have high hopes’
At Enfield’s polling place, Thomas Lewis, 75, an independent, declined to say who he voted for but said he came with a plan. “Number one, I always vote,” Lewis said. “Number two, I had specific candidates in mind.” He said he likes Chris Pappas for Senate and Maggie Goodlander for Congress.
Chris Decato, 57, said he re-registered to vote in Enfield after moving from Lebanon a few years ago, and turned out specifically to support Manzur in the Senate race. “I wanted to do it to vote for Karishma,” Decato said, describing her as progressive and independent of the party establishment. He waved off criticism that Manzur is too far to the left. “There is this like, ‘Oh, it’s the commie wave’ or whatever. Fine, I’m down,” he said. “I’m hoping she’ll win, but I don’t have high hopes — but that’s why I’m here, because at least I can say I did the right thing.”
Canaan: ‘Strong, smart women’
At the polls in Canaan and North Canaan, two Democratic voters said women on the ballot drew them out. Donlon Wade, 78, of North Canaan, said he voted for Manzur for Senate and Ella Barrett — the Democrat running for the state House seat representing Canaan, Dorchester and Orange — for the local race.
“I voted for this woman because I believe we need more people like her speaking their truth — strong women, smart women, that aren’t going to be corrupted by the patriarchy,” Wade said of Manzur. He said Barrett was cut from the same cloth. “She’s a little younger, but she’s getting there, and she will speak up and not be silent on the issues that really count in this state for all of us.”
Ella Shinnlinger, 23, of Canaan, said Barrett, a former classmate, was what brought her to the polls. “Ella Barrett, we went to school together, and so she’s definitely rallied us young folk into it,” Shinnlinger said.
In the congressional race, Shinnlinger said she voted for Beauchemin, Goodlander’s progressive challenger, citing her impression of Beauchemin’s fundraising. “I’m pretty sure she didn’t take money from, like, the Israel situation there, and that was really the big hitter,” she said.
Toni Brightman, 74, of Canaan, said she voted the Republican ticket, though without much certainty. “I vote with my party and hope for the best. I don’t get myself all crazy about it,” Brightman said. “I just voted Republican and, again, hope for the best because, honestly, I’m a little bit disappointed in Republicans as well.” She said the country’s divisions weighed on her. “I’m kind of glad I’m old because I’m not going to face what I fear is ahead,” she said.
Plainfield: Manzur – ‘I don’t know if she has a shot’
Mark Hardy, 67, who voted in the Democratic primary late Tuesday morning, said he was excited to support Jenny Ramsey, a Plainfield resident running for the state House seat representing Cornish and Plainfield. “Jenny has done a terrific job on the school board,” Hardy said, describing her as sharp and strong but not combative. Ramsey served 11 years on the Plainfield School Board, three as chair.
Ron Eberhardt, 79, biked to the Plainfield School to cast a Democratic ballot. He said the political center has drifted right in recent years, making progressive ideas harder to come by.
In the Senate race, Eberhardt said he supports Manzur, who he said has visited Plainfield — though he acknowledged the familiar tension between backing the candidate whose ideas he likes best and the one seen as more electable. “I like her ideas,” Eberhardt said. “I don’t know if she has a shot.”
Claremont: ‘Good people running our town’
At Claremont Middle School, Emily Baldwin, 34, said she voted in the Democratic primary to have a say in who runs the city. “The primary is a very important time to vote and start to express your opinions about the local politics,” Baldwin said. “I just want to make sure there’s good people running our town that care about all of their constituents.” She said she tries to find “as nonpartisan information about all of the candidates as possible” so that she is “prepared to vote for the proper person.”
Maria Boccia, 80, cited the economy and said she feared for American democracy. “I would really like to show the other party that Democrats can win when they say the right things,” said Boccia, who has not missed an election since she began voting in New York in 1965.
Newport: ‘Some peace and quiet in this country’
At the LaValley Community Center, Alicia Bercy, 45, said she was watching the governor’s race most closely. “I feel like New Hampshire still feeds a lot into national politics platforms, so I like to keep an eye on that,” Bercy said. She said she has followed Ayotte’s career since the governor’s early years as a prosecutor. More than any single issue, Bercy said, she wanted a change in tone. “I just want some peace and quiet in this country so people can be nice to each other again,” she said. She called voting “hugely important, especially as a woman.”
Matthew Smith, 28, said his priorities were “crime, safety, immigration, the economy,” and that he was following the U.S. Senate race most closely. “New Hampshire is probably the closest — I would say the swing state, could go either way,” he said. Smith said he planned to support Ayotte in November. He urged other voters to sort through the noise themselves. “Do your own research, to really look at the issues,” he said. “It can be confusing. There’s a lot of different news out there.”
Hanover: ‘Change the tenor of the country’
At Hanover High School, Anne Cooper, 42, said she hopes Goodlander, who “has served us really well,” advances to November, and that turning out for the primary was a way to “show the strength of ‘I Am a Democrat.’” She said she is “mostly, frankly, very upset about national and federal level politics.”
Cooper said she is also worried about “some of the Free Stater efforts here and efforts to defund education,” which she tied to property taxes.
“The idea that we’re surreptitiously underfunding education and then raising property taxes and blaming it that education is so expensive,” Cooper said, describing New Hampshire as last among states in the share of school funding that comes from the state — a figure she acknowledged she wasn’t certain of. “I am fundamentally opposed to the idea that our government should not be helping to support public education,” she said.
Betsy Gonnerman, 81, said her main concern is winning Democratic seats in the U.S. Senate and House. “We’ve got to change the tenor of the country,” she said. She said the state also needs “a change in governor,” and that she would accept higher taxes to pay for schools. “I don’t think we can provide a good education for our kids without it,” Gonnerman said. A Republican for most of her life, she said she switched parties two or three decades ago as she “became more aware of the political issues.”
Rowland, the Etna voter, returned to that sense of unease as she left Hanover High. “I guess I lived at a comparatively good time,” she said, “and right now everything is coming apart.”
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