After decade of GOP control, Democrats recruit challenger in key swing state
With November's elections less than nine months away, Democrats finally have a major candidate to take on Republican Gov. Kelly Ayotte as she seeks a second term steering swing-state New Hampshire.
Cinde Warmington, a former member of New Hampshire's elected Executive Council, on Wednesday officially launched her second straight campaign for governor.
Republicans have controlled the governor's office in the crucial northern New England battleground for nearly a decade — first under former Gov. Chris Sununu and now under Ayotte, who succeeded Sununu 13 months ago — and Democrats are aiming to finally win back what's known in New Hampshire as "the corner office" in the Statehouse.
In her campaign release and launch video, Warmington took aim at Ayotte over affordability, which has been a winning issue for Democrats amid persistent inflation in the year since President Donald Trump returned to the White House.
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"The prices of groceries, housing, electricity, and property taxes are crushing working families. And Kelly Ayotte is making life in New Hampshire even more expensive," Warmington charged.
And Warmington knocked Ayotte for not more forcefully pushing back against Trump's unprecedented second-term agenda, which includes an ongoing attempt by the administration to open an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in the state.
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"I’ll stand up to Trump when he jacks up healthcare costs and tariffs. I’ll say no to ICE’s warehouse, and I’ll work for our small businesses and make sure we don’t have a sales or income tax," she emphasized.
Ayotte, a former U.S. senator who previously served as state attorney general, has had some friction with the Trump administration over the past year, and criticized Washington over a lack of transparency surrounding the ICE facility. The governor also forced the resignation of a state official who had been in communication with Trump's team without telling Ayotte.
Ayotte's approval ratings are in positive territory — 50%-45% in the most recent University of New Hampshire poll conducted last month — and her fundraising has been formidable.
While Democrats have controlled the state's federal delegation in Congress for a decade, they haven't won a gubernatorial election since 2014. But Democrats are energized, as Republicans in New Hampshire and across the country face a rough political climate, and the GOP, as the party in power both in Washington and in Concord, the Granite State's capital city, will deal with the traditional political headwinds that incumbents typically face.
Ayotte's campaign quickly blasted Warmington over her past lobbying for the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries.
"Cinde Warmington spent her career as a lobbyist for the opioid industry, promoting OxyContin and defending New England's most notorious pill mill. Cinde chose to make money off big pharmaceutical companies who hurt Granite Staters, and she is absolutely disqualified from serving as our Governor," Ayotte spokesman John Corbett charged in a statement.
Warmington first ran for governor two years ago, losing the Democratic primary to former Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig, who lost to Ayotte in the general election by nearly 10 points.
The Republican Governors Association communications director Courtney Alexander argued that "the fact that an already failed candidate is all New Hampshire Democrats could come up with speaks to their desperation."
Warmington may not have the Democratic primary field to herself.
Democratic Mayor Deaglan McEachern of Portsmouth, who is mulling a gubernatorial run, said in a statement, "With everything happening in Concord and Washington, DC, the stakes are too high to risk losing this race, and I believe it's time that New Hampshire Democrats look to the future as we work to beat Kelly Ayotte."
"I look forward to saying more soon," he added.