The downballot New Hampshire primaries: Who was ousted and who survived

Voters enter the polls just after 4 p.m. at Salem's Fisk Elementary School on Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024. (Will Steinfeld | For the New Hampshire Bulletin)

Former Department of Health and Human Services Commissioner John Stephen won a crowded Republican primary to succeed Executive Councilor Ted Gatsas Tuesday, beating out a former candidate for Congress, a former state senator, and a former vice chairman of the state Republican Party.

Stephen, who served as commissioner from 2003 to 2007 and now runs a management consulting firm, ran on a message of fiscal responsibility and was endorsed by sitting Executive Councilors Dave Wheeler and Joe Kenney, as well as House Majority Leader Jason Osborne. Gatsas, the former mayor of Manchester, is retiring from his position.

Stephen took 37 percent of the vote, ahead of Robert Burns, who ran unsuccessfully as the Republican nominee seeking to unseat U.S. Rep. Annie Kuster in 2022 and has competed for the District 4 council seat twice before. Burns won 22.72 percent of the vote, according to results from the Associated Press.

Stephen’s other competitors included Terese Bastarache, formerly Terese Grinell, an activist opposed to vaccine mandates and COVID measures; John Reagan, the former state senator from Deerfield; Ross Terrio, a former state representative and Manchester alderman; and Ryan Terrell, a former conservative member of the State Board of Education and formerly the Republican vice chairman.

Executive Council District 4 wasn’t the only contested primary for Executive Council. And it joined a slate of other House and Senate primaries Tuesday. Here’s how some of those downballot primaries shook out.

Executive Council: Fight to succeed Warmington is set

Both parties held primaries to determine who would compete for Executive Council District 2, which is currently held by Democrat Cinde Warmington. Warmington ran for governor and lost her primary to Joyce Craig Tuesday; her seat, which tilts overwhelmingly to Democrats, is open.

In the Democratic primary, Lebanon City Councilor Karen Liot Hill beat Michael Liberty, a tech entrepreneur who founded a fraud prevention app called Signifyd. Hill won with 56 percent of the vote.

And Kim Strathdee won the Republican nomination for the same seat, beating Mary Deak with 56 percent of the vote.

Meanwhile, Melanie Levesque, a former state senator, won the Democratic primary in District 5 against Nashua Alderwoman Shoshanna Kelly. Levesque will seek to unseat Republican Councilor David Wheeler in November.

Republicans currently dominate the council, 4-1.

State Senate: Gannon defends his seat and Reardon advances

Among the 24 New Hampshire state Senate seats, few had competitive primaries.

But one Republican primary commanded outsized attention: Emily Phillips’ campaign to oust sitting Sen. Bill Gannon.

Phillips, a state representative from Fremont, attempted to challenge Gannon from a libertarian perch, taking staunch positions against immigration, in favor of more lenient drug penalties, and in favor of school choice efforts like education freedom accounts. But after a flood of negative advertising and Phillips’ controversial choice to endorse Democratic representative Rep. Ellen Read in Read’s own primary, Phillips came up short, winning just 33 percent of the vote to Gannon’s 67 percent.

After Hopkinton state Sen. Becky Whitley resigned her seat following a short-lived campaign for Congress, three Democrats vied for the District 15 seat, seen as a safe seat for the party. Tara Reardon, a former state representative and current county commissioner, won against state Reps. Rebecca McWilliams and Angela Brennan.

And longtime Democratic state Rep. Pat Long beat Sean Parr, a St. Anselm music professor and Manchester school board member, to win the District 20 Democratic primary.

State House: Eight sitting Republican reps ousted in primaries

Perhaps more interesting than who won in the primaries for New Hampshire House was who didn’t.

Eight sitting Republicans and one Democrat will not be returning to the House next year, barring any unlikely write-in campaigns, after Tuesday’s primary. Many of the rejected incumbents were long-serving representatives.

The list includes Republican Reps. Richard Beaudoin of Gilford; Michael Costable of Freedom; Kevin Pratt and Tim Cahill of Raymond; Josh Yokela of Fremont; Jason Janvrin of Seabrook; Scott Wallace of Danville; and David Bickford of New Durham. On the Democratic side, Mike Cahill was ousted in Newmarket, beaten by Democrats Ellen Read and Toni Weinstein.

Several former representatives made attempts to return to office, only to be rejected by the same communities that had once elected them. That includes former Republican Reps. Dawn Johnson of Laconia; Warner Horn of Franklin; Betty Gay of Salem; and Bill Fowler of Seabrook, and former Rep. Ivy Vann of Peterborough.

It can be difficult to determine why some House candidates lose primaries. In many towns, voters may choose multiple candidates from a larger list. Incumbents may fail to make the cut for no apparent reason of their own and despite a lack of attacks from their opponents.