Craig tops Warmington to win Democratic nomination for governor

Former Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig files to run for governor on June 14, 2024. (Annmarie Timmins | New Hampshire Bulletin)

Joyce Craig, who led Manchester for three terms as its first female mayor, won the Democratic nomination for governor Tuesday.

She will try to flip the office blue after eight years under Republican Gov. Chris Sununu, who did not seek a fifth term in office. Craig defeated Cinde Warmington, a Democratic executive councilor and health care attorney from Concord, and restaurant owner Jon Kiper. The Associated Press called the race at 9:48 p.m.

With 64 percent of votes counted, Craig captured 48 percent of the vote, with Warmington getting 41 percent and Kiper 10 percent

Craig withstood attacks from both Warmington and Republican candidate Kelly Ayotte on her record as mayor, with her opponents attacking her over homelessness and drug overdoses in the city.

On the campaign trail, she cast her tenure as mayor as a success and emphasized issues like abortion rights and affordable housing. She has called Ayotte an extreme Republican and criticized Warmington for her 2002 lobbying work for Purdue Pharma, makers of the addictive painkiller oxycontin.

Craig was born and raised in Manchester and resides there with her family. She began her political career on the city’s Board of School Committee before spending six years as an alderman. She was mayor of Manchester from 2018 until this January.