With exactly 50 days to go until Election Day – – and 30 years after Newt Gingrich first used it to make history — Republicans on Monday unveiled their “Contract with New Hampshire,” an effort to win a solid majority in the legislature this November.
“It’s a promise to all of our citizens that we’ll protect and preserve the freedoms we cherish as Granite Staters,” House Majority Leader Jason Osborne (R-Auburn) told reporters. He was joined by fellow House leaders and Republican House candidates, all supporting a list of 10 issues they hope will resonate with the average voter.
At the top of the list is housing policy, which polls show is the top concern of unaffiliated voters, as well as business owners struggling to fill jobs as workers struggling to find housing.
“Our solution is simple,” Osborne said. “Expand housing supply and lower property taxes.”
Also on the list: lower taxes, parental control of their children’s education, banning sanctuary cities, and lowering energy prices. Polls show New Hampshire voters are with the GOP on those issues.
Thirty years ago in Washington, D.C., Rep. Newt Gingrich started a Republican revolution when he used the “Contract With America” to win the GOP’s first House majority since the Truman administration. Granite State Republicans hope their version will have similar results.
Osborne, House Speaker Sherm Packard (R-Londonderry), and House Majority Floor Leader Joe Sweeney (R-Salem) said they are confident their legislative agenda will increase their razor-thin majority within the state’s lower chamber.
The 400-member body’s current breakdown includes 197 Republicans, 191 Democrats, 11 vacancies, and a single undeclared member.
Republicans have recently turned to amplifying the pro-tax track record of former Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig, who won the Democratic gubernatorial primary last week. Her GOP opponent, former U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte, immediately attacked Craig’s record of pushing for new Queen City taxes on six occasions.
Should Craig win and Democrats reclaim the majority, House Republicans warn, voters can expect a series of new statewide taxes.
“When the government controls more of your money, they control more of your life,” Osborne said, calling out “inefficient” and “bloated” public initiatives. “They fund the endless expansion of government while middle-class families struggle to make ends meet.
“This contract with New Hampshire today will deliver the tax relief that Granite Staters deserve.”
In a sign of the political power of the abortion issue in this election, Republicans included their pledge to keep the state’s current law unchanged on their list of priorities.
“New Hampshire law has no restrictions for any woman who gets an abortion through six months of pregnancy,” Packard pointed out. “Our opponents are the ones who want to change the New Hampshire law to pass what 70 percent of Granite Staters are opposed to extreme late-term abortions, those abortions that take place in the last three months of a pregnancy.”
Some Republican campaign professionals believe it’s a risky move. “When Republicans are talking about abortion, they’re losing — period,” one told NHJournal after the contract was released.
Much less controversial is the GOP’s focus on supporting a ban on sanctuary cities.
On the last day of the legislative session, the Senate advanced a bill cracking down on sanctuary city policies. But the lack of a GOP majority in the House when the bill reached the floor led to failure. Meanwhile, polls show an overwhelming majority of Granite Staters oppose sanctuary cities.
On Monday, Packard said Republicans “will never let New Hampshire become a sanctuary state for illegal immigrants coming across the border from Massachusetts and Canada.”
“We will fight to protect our northern border and stop all magnets attracting illegal immigrants from coming to our state,” he added. “Our competing visions of New Hampshire couldn’t be any clearer.”
Former state Rep. Ross Berry, who resigned in May after moving from Manchester to Weare, is running for the House once again and fielded questions from reporters alongside Sweeney.
Asked about efforts to change the state’s abortion laws, and claims by Democrats that Republicans may seek to further restrict the practice, Berry said abortion “is the only issue they’re [Democrats] running on” and accused them of “gaslighting the entire state.”
Sweeney said GOP House members “are sending a clear message that we’re not touching the issue.”
Democrats responded to the GOP’s “Contract with New Hampshire” on social media.
“REMINDER: This term over 100 House Republicans voted to ban abortion in NH at six weeks,” the House Democrats’ social media account posted Monday afternoon on X. “@NHHouseDems are fighting to protect reproductive freedom in the Granite State because we’re not going back.”
HB 591, the 2023 proposal that would have banned abortions after six weeks (or after a heartbeat is detected), was defeated by a 217-110 vote with 81 Republicans voting against the bill.
