He’s racked up a series of high-profile endorsements, including U.S. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), and has outraised his closest GOP primary opponent by more than 2 to 1 margin.
Former Executive Councilor Russell Prescott told NHJournal on Thursday he believes he is the most qualified candidate in the crowded First Congressional District primary to take on incumbent Democratic U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas this November.
“When people say, ‘Alright, tell me what you’ve done – have you ever won an election or passed any bills, and are you a business person?’ All of those answers for me are ‘yes,’” Prescott said.
His record backs it up.
Prescott is a professional engineer who has seven water treatment device patents under his belt. He’s currently the president of a family business founded in 1954 that employs 50 people.
As a Republican candidate, Prescott has defeated Democrat U.S. Sen. Maggie Hassan — not once, but twice — between 2010 and 2016 as a state Senate candidate. As a state senator, he worked on balancing the budget and pushing through a series of income tax cuts.
In 2016, Prescott was elected to the state’s Executive Council. Two years later, when Democrats gained majorities in both the House and the Senate, Prescott defeated his Democratic challenger.
“Not only did I deliver, but I did so by winning in a Democratic district and by earning the support of the independent voter,” he said of his back-to-back victories over Hassan.
Prescott’s electoral success caught the attention of Senator Paul.
Prescott recalled traveling to Washington, D.C., a year ago and discovering Paul’s chief of staff happened to be a former volunteer who worked on Prescott’s state Senate campaigns. The same staffer met his future wife while campaigning for Prescott.
“He got me a sit-down with Sen. Paul,” Prescott said. “And after a year of seeing how well I was doing on the campaign trail, and the fact I beat Maggie Hassan twice, he was definitely on board to make sure we can unseat a similar pro-income tax candidate in Chris Pappas.”
Prescott’s long list of supporters also includes former Executive Councilor Earl Rinker.
“His service on the Executive Council, as well as in the State Senate, was exemplary,” Rinker said in his endorsement. “It’s my honor to endorse Russ for a seat in Congress in the First Congressional District.
“We desperately need good, sound leadership in Congress. With Russ’ political skills, I know he will do a stellar job representing his New Hampshire constituents.”
Yet despite Prescott’s extensive endorsements and fundraising success, it’s been tough for Prescott and the other Republicans in the primary to get the attention of the voters.
A recent Saint Anselm College Survey Center poll found 59 percent of GOP primary voters still don’t know enough about the current NH-01 candidates to have an opinion about them. The same poll placed Prescott in second place with 10 percent support, trailing Manchester Alderman-at-large Joe Kelly Levasseur (15 percent). No other candidates broke double digits.
A University of New Hampshire Survey Center poll put Prescott in the lead, however, with 19 percent – nine points higher than Levasseur. The same poll yielded almost the exact same result (60 percent) for undecideds.
The low name ID is particularly problematic for Prescott, who ran in the First District primary just two years ago. In that race, he experienced his lone setback in his political career when he finished a distant fourth place with just 10 percent of the vote.
Now just days away from Tuesday’s primary date, Prescott isn’t focusing on the past — instead, he’s focusing on Pappas’ record.
“In New Hampshire, we believe in local control and that we should have a limited government,” Prescott said. “I know that Chris Pappas has left that behind.
“He voted to take away the right of our state to run our own elections. He wanted to take the local control at the state level to the federal level and eliminate the voter identification law that I was the chief sponsor of.”
Prescott also called out Pappas over his refusal to pressure President Joe Biden to enforce current immigration laws.
“He gets on television, gets on radio, and admits we can’t have this influx of illegal immigrants, and yet the previous three years he’s been doing nothing to close the border,” Pappas said. “He should simply be telling President Biden to follow the Constitution and enforce our laws.
“This is again where Chris Pappas has left behind the values we have here in New Hampshire. When we swear to take the oath of the Constitution, we’re responsible for upholding it and enforcing it, and that’s not what he’s doing.”
Prescott has taken incoming political fire from some of his opponents, most notably business owner Hollie Noveletsky, who has hit him hard over his votes to approve state funds for Planned Parenthood. She’s also called him out over support for a transportation plan that included a 50 percent increase in tolls.
During a candidate forum in June, Prescott defended his support for the advisory report, noting the 10-year highway plan “included removing the tolls at Merrimack and included taking care of long-needed maintenance on our bridges.”
After the event, Prescott told NHJournal, “You can’t compare a committee contingency advisory vote to an official enactment. They are two totally different things. The advisory vote was to send information to the governor, and consequently, I later voted on an enactment to remove Merrimack tolls. It’s that simple.”
Prescott argues he has an advantage facing off against Pappas none of his previous GOP challengers had: experience.
The winner of the 2022 GOP primary, Karoline Leavitt, was a 25-year-old political novice who went on to lose to Pappas 46-54, Prescott pointed out. Other Republicans Pappas has defeated since 2018 include former New Hampshire Republican Party Executive Director Matt Mowers, and Eddie Edwards, who served as director of the New Hampshire Liquor Commission Enforcement Division from 2005 to 2013.
“Chris Pappas has never met a candidate that has had more experience running a business, cutting taxes, and solving problems in the public sector than I have,” Prescott said. “This is the first time, if I win the primary, that it will happen.”
As far as broader messaging goes, Prescott said he believes the choice in the general election will come down to whether New Hampshire voters have an appetite for a socialist approach to federal governing.
“I want to show that socialism doesn’t put food on the table as well as a well-oiled economy does,” said Prescott. “When we have lower taxes and less government, that is when we have more freedom and ability to reach the American dream.
“For the first time the people of the First District will get to pick someone with a record to back up the message that we need in November to turn our country around.”
