Ten years ago this week, New Hampshire House Republicans were handed one of their biggest defeats in party history when their leader was denied the speakership.
With the help of Rep. Kim Rice (R-Hudson), could it happen again?
In last month’s election, House Republicans expanded their nearly nonexistent majority into a solid 221-178-1, giving them the votes they need to pass GOP priorities like a Parent’s Bill of Rights and a ban on sanctuary cities. And while the party had a contested vote for leader, Speaker Sherm Packard (R-Londonderry) won the majority he needed to once again lead the House.
But when the House meets Wednesday to pick a speaker, three names reportedly will be offered: Packard, House Democratic Leader Rep. Alexis Simpson (D-Exeter), and Republican Rice — a throwback to the GOP disaster a decade ago.
Even more angering to some House GOP members are reports that Rice or her surrogates have been reaching out to Democrats to cut a deal and keep Packard out.
It’s an eerily similar story to 2014.
That year, Republicans turned a 213-173 Democrat majority to a 239-161 GOP-controlled House. The caucus was closely divided between former speaker Bill O’Brien and Rep. Shawn Jasper for leader. O’Brien won the battle for party leader, but lost the war to become speaker. When O’Brien fell four votes short of a majority on the first ballot, Jasper then offered his name. When two dozen or so Republicans joined every Democrat, he won the gavel.
What followed was months of Republican division and dissent, with House conservatives setting up shop outside the State House and Jasper narrowly surviving a primary in 2016.
Sources close to Packard told NHJournal that’s their biggest frustration with Rice’s move. “She was speaker pro tempore under Sherm, and now this,” one House member said. “If Rice and the Democrats can pull this off, all the good things we could do over the next two years with our majority — that’s out the window.”
Rice was a “no comment” when asked by NHJournal about her plans, and declined to comment on reports that she or her proxies were actively cultivating Democratic votes.
One significant difference between today and 2014, several House Republicans went out of their way to note, was that Jasper didn’t enter the race until after O’Brien failed to earn a majority. Rice, on the other hand, is reportedly entering the race on the first ballot, apparently with the intention of denying Packard the chance to win a majority.
On social media, Rice posted that “people are putting me up for speaker, but I’m not making deals with Democrats.”
Republicans scoffed at that claim, noting that if Rice opposes the effort, it won’t go forward.
“She had her chance to run for speaker a few weeks ago. She didn’t, and we voted in our choice,” said Rep. Liza Mazur (R-Goffstown). “It’s now time to unify behind Sherm Packard and move forward. We were given a mandate by the voters of New Hampshire, and this is all a distraction to that.”
Rice is from the more moderate wing of the party, serving as state co-chair of former Ambassador Nikki Haley’s presidential bid. And, her GOP critics claim, she helped kill parental rights legislation during the 2020-2022 session. (Rice didn’t run for reelection in the 2022 cycle.)
Rice was pulled from the negotiating committee reviewing the bill late in the process and replaced by House Majority Leader Jason Osborne (R-Auburn), who was viewed as more pro-parental rights.
In a social media post over the weekend, Rice pushed back on that complaint.
“If I really wanted to sabotage the parental bill of rights, I wouldn’t have reconvened the committee of conference and tell the speaker to take me off of it,” Rice said. “I wasn’t demoted. I told (Packard) to remove me. I also supported the bill last term and tried to get others to support it, even though I wasn’t in the House.”
Steve MacDonald at GraniteGrok was first to publish a story on Rice’s potential challenge to Packard.
“Rice has fellow Republicans whipping RINOs and freshmen to vote for Rice on Organization Day,” MacDonald wrote. “We recommend that you do not vote for her. It’s bad for Republicans, the majority advantage, and New Hampshire.”
