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New Hampshire families can now choose a new financial literacy course from PragerU through the state’s Learn Everywhere program, and New Hampshire Democrats have a new hobby horse to ride into campaign season.

That was the result after three hours of a contentious State Board of Education meeting on Thursday, where Democrats, progressives, and union activists packed the room to denounce PragerU and its “right-wing” politics.

“This approval disregards the potential harm PragerU’s extreme content will inflict on our schools and the education of our children,” said Democratic Executive Councilor Cinde Warmington, who is seeking her party’s nomination for governor next year.

At issue is a video course on personal finances and financial literacy called “Cash Course,” and produced by PragerU, a conservative content business. The state Board of Education has been considering making the course, which contains no political or controversial content, part of the content eligible to complete course requirements for students in the Learn Everywhere program.

Learn Everywhere, an innovative education program unique to New Hampshire, allows students to earn credit for learning outside the classroom. The program, which has been under development since 2018, was first approved in August 2020 in a 4-3 vote.

The State Board of Education voted unanimously Thursday, with Chair Drew Cline’s abstention, to approve the PragerU content as a half-credit course. The class is offered for free for any student who chooses to take it.

The approval comes despite heavy, organized opposition from progressives and teachers unions against PragerU.

Their opposition is not based on the content itself but rather on the provider. Many of the people who spoke in opposition Thursday did not appear to have seen the Cash Course content under consideration.

“I am appalled by today’s Board of Education decision to allow PragerU to operate in New Hampshire. I will fight for every child in our state to receive a quality education, and I will never allow an extreme right-wing organization to influence their learning,” Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig said.

Craig is also running for the Democratic nomination for governor.

Warmington has been using the PragerU issue to campaign and fundraise for weeks, attacking “their extremist views.” Warmington declined to respond when asked to identify what “extremist views” were in the personal finance content under consideration by the Board of Education.

Warmington suffered a political faceplant early this week with an unfounded complaint that PragerU was falsely presenting itself as an actual university and potentially violating New Hampshire state law. Attorney General John F0rmella dismissed Warmington’s complaint, noting the website explicitly announces PragerU is not a university and that the law Warmington cited only applies to entities incorporated in New Hampshire. It was embarrassing for a career attorney who spent two decades at the Sheehan & Gordon law firm.

“There’s been a lot of misinformation about Learn Everywhere and this course,” Cline said during Thursday’s board meeting.

PragerU is not partnering with the state, getting a state contract, or being paid any taxpayer money, Cline said. Further, the PragerU class is not required for any New Hampshire student. Additionally, PragerU plans to offer its class on a website independent of the wider PragerU offerings.

The association with the conservative media personality Dennis Prager is the major red flag for the Cash Course opponents. Dozens of people who were against PragerU’s application spoke Thursday, accusing the conservative non-profit of pushing an extremist agenda and even likening it to the Ku Klux Klan.

Supporters say that while PragerU is unapologetically conservative in its philosophy, it is far from being an extremist organization. And they note that many of the union members and progressives who say its politics are “too extreme” have supported far-left “critical race theory” content from racists like Ibram X. Kendi in New Hampshire’s K-12 classrooms.

Board Member Richard Sala said the board had approved several Learn Everywhere options and charter schools with decidedly left-wing ideologies. He said the board is not trying to push an agenda other than giving all parents the most choices for their children.

“I trust parents to make good calls for their kids more than I trust the government to,” Sala said.

Sala noted that while PragerU is a conservative, so are at least half the families in New Hampshire.

“A lot of PragerU material is mainstream political thought in this country,” Sala said. “You can’t censor half the ideas in this country.”

It wasn’t all about fears children were being indoctrinated into the Republican Party. Deb Howes, head of the New Hampshire American Federal of Teachers, the state’s second biggest teachers union, claimed that allowing students to take the Cash Course class for a half credit would lower the state’s education standards.

“Watching a video and doing a worksheet doesn’t help you remember it when it counts,” Howe said.

Cline said PragerU’s Cash Course class covers a little more material than another financial literacy program already approved for Learn Everywhere. That program did not receive any public opposition when it was approved.

Board Member Ryan Terrell said the opposition to PragerU is ruled by a bias against all conservatives, which assumes any Republican is a homophobic racist.

“You say you want open dialogue and then attack a whole swath of people’s ideals,” Tyrell said.

The opponents revealed they are ultimately against New Hampshire families having real choices when it comes to educating their children, Tyrell said.

“The overall message was anti-choice. It’s simply that black and white,” Terrell said.

Call him Steve Two Times.

Steve Marchand, the twice-failed progressive candidate for governor, was issued the second warning of his political career by the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office, this one for deceptive campaign materials.

Assistant Attorney General Brendan O’Donnell sent Marchand a letter Wednesday stating that he is responsible for double-sided handbills targeting former Portsmouth Mayor Rick Becksted and former City Councilors Paige Trace, Petra Huda, Peter Whelan and Esther Kennedy in the 2021 election. However, that investigation is being closed without further action.

Marchand violated state campaign law with the handbills that he admits he paid for by failing to disclose his name on the materials. But he won’t be charged since he claimed to have acted alone, according to O’Donnell’s letter.

Under the United States Supreme Court ruling in McIntyre v. Ohio, individuals are exempted from disclosure laws as long as they are acting alone and not part of an organized campaign. Marchand earns his living as a political consultant.

Marchand did not respond to a request for comment.

Last year, Assistant Attorney General Myles Matteson concluded Marchand was responsible for the anonymous Preserve-Portsmouth.com and other websites targeting Becksted, Trace, Huda, Whelan, and Kennedy. Again, Marchand was let off with a warning based on the McIntyre ruling.

Marchand targeted the five public officials with anonymous websites, fliers, and robo texts, painting them as too conservative for the city and linking them to former President Donald Trump. According to documents obtained by the Attorney General’s Office, Marchand planned to depress voter turnout among Republicans in order to benefit Democrats on the ballot. 

According to Matteson’s letter, Marchand initially lied to investigator Anna Croteau when she questioned him about his part in the campaign.

“When she first asked about Preserve-Portsmouth.com, you stated that you had heard of the website. You denied you had ever claimed responsibility for the website but noted that other people had been saying you were responsible for it,” Mattson wrote. 

However, Croteau already had screenshots of a text conversation in which Marchand took credit for the content of the websites. 

“To be very clear, I am the one to create the content,” Marchand wrote in the text.

The legal opinion that Marchand acted alone based on his own statements to investigators seems to fly in the face of the evidence of collaboration uncovered in the investigation. 

The Attorney General’s Office has records of Marchand’s communications with at least four other people about the campaign, in which he stated the goal was to create guilt by association aimed at the targeted candidates, linking them to Trump in the mind of Portsmouth voters.

“(i)s really meant to help get Democrats who gave Becksted and others a vote in 2019 to really think about what they were doing in 2021,” Marchand wrote. 

Matteson wrote the purpose of the anonymous campaigns clear from Marchand’s statements to the others involved.

“It is clear from your own correspondence and admissions that your intended purpose of the site was to influence the Portsmouth City Council election,” Matteson wrote.

Marchand’s campaign seemed to work, as none of the candidates targeted by Marchand won their races.

Marchand lost Democratic gubernatorial primaries to Colin Van Ostern in 2016 and Molly Kelley in 2018. In both campaigns,  Marchand painted himself as a progressive champion when he ran, calling for tighter gun control, universal healthcare, and opposition to the Northern Pass electric transmission line project.

Marchand also ran a failed primary campaign from the left against Democratic U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen in 2008. He hasn’t yet declared any plans for a second race for Senate.

One is a former cop who is fighting to keep the records surrounding his firing from the force secret.

Another is a progressive who has spoken at “defund the police” rallies urging drastic restrictions on policing.

And another used her social media account to echo antisemite Louis Farrakhan’s language about Jews being “termites.”

What do they all have in common?

They all play a key role in overseeing law enforcement and crime policy in the Granite State as members of the House Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee.

The committee is currently chaired by Rep. Terry Roy (R-Deerfield) who was fired from the Gardner, Mass. police force for lying on his Massachusetts license to carry a firearm application, according to court records.

He serves alongside fellow Republican Rep. Jon Stone (R-Claremont), who is fighting a Superior Court order to unseal the Claremont Police Department internal affairs records that might allow voters to know why he was fired from being a police officer.

Democrats on the committee include Rep. Allisandra Rodríguez-Murray (D-Manchester), who supported the “defund the police” movement and has made problematic statements regarding allegations of antisemitism among her fellow progressives.

Peterborough Democrat Jonah Wheeler, another new member of the committee, also aggressively promoted the “defund the police” movement speaking at rallies advocating the policy.

Those members of the Criminal Justice committee will weigh in on proposed law changes, like the one to eliminate the physical fitness requirements for police officers, or one allowing convicted felons to own guns, or another legalizing Dimethyltryptamine, a powerful hallucinogenic drug used in some native peoples’ religious ceremonies.

Pat Sullivan, executive director of the New Hampshire Chiefs of Police Association, said he and other advocates in the law enforcement and public safety community, will work with whoever sits on the committee.

“The New Hampshire legislature is the third or fourth-largest legislative body in the world, we get what we get,” Sullivan said.

Neither Stone, Murray, nor Wheeler responded to requests for comment.

According to court records, Roy was fired from the Gardner, Mass. Police Department in 1999 after then-Police Chief James Dufort discovered Roy lied on his original application for his license to carry a firearm. Dufort sent Roy a letter detailing why he was revoking the license.

“I find that you are not a suitable person to be licensed to possess a firearm,” Dufort wrote.

According to a court opinion affirming the revocation, Dufort believed Roy lied on his original application when he claimed he never had a prior criminal conviction, and that he had never used drugs.

“Chief Dufort discovered, however, that Roy’s criminal records indicate that he twice appeared before a juvenile court on delinquency complaints, one for a false alarm and another for larceny. In addition, while serving in the United States Army in 1990, Roy admitted to possession and use of cocaine,” Judge Timothy Hillman wrote.

Roy would keep fighting his termination in court, which he said was payback from some in Gardner City Hall after he arrested a city councilor for drunk driving. He eventually reached a settlement with the city, had his personnel record cleared, and had his termination changed to a resignation. Even though Roy would get his firearms license back and go on to work as an investigator for the state of Massachusetts, his time in Gardner continues to be used by political enemies.

“Because they know, that no matter how small the position, whether it pays, is volunteer, or as in this case, actually costs the person money to do; the other party will attempt to drag them and their families through any mud they can find, regardless how old or how untrue,” Roy said. “I was a much younger and healthier man a quarter century ago when I originally fought and won this in the press and the courts. It would be nice to be able to stop at some point.”

Stone, like Roy, became politically active after his career in New Hampshire law enforcement ended with termination. He is currently a member of the Claremont City Council and won a close vote in November to take the seat in the state House.

In 2006, Stone was fired from the Claremont Police Department for reasons that have never been made public. This reporter made a 2020 Right to Know request seeking Stone’s internal affairs records, and Stone has been attempting to keep the investigations into his actions as a police officer, and the possible reasoning for his firing from the department, hidden from the public since.

Last month, Sullivan Superior Court Judge Martin Honigberg ordered Stone’s records released, but stayed that order to give Stone time to appeal to the New Hampshire Supreme Court.

House Majority Leader Jason Osborne (R-Auburn) dismissed concerns about Roy and Stone’s past.

“I can’t imagine why I would concern myself with the distant past HR file of a legislative colleague,” Osborne said.

Rodríguez-Murray and Wheeler have both been vocal in their support for defunding police. They are also part of the progressive Rights and Democracy organization that targeted former Rep. Nicole Klein Knight (D-Manchester) after she complained about Rep. Maria Perez’s anti-Semitic statements.

Wheeler was following Klein Knight out of a committee meeting when she got into a verbal exchange with him, during which she used the n-word several times. She later claimed she was using the word as an example of offensive, and not pejoratively directed at Wheeler, who is African American.

During the ensuing fallout, Rodríguez-Murray decried Klein Knight’s lack of an apology two weeks after the incident and employed an anti-Semitic trope.

“Two weeks without an apology from @RepNicoleK and I’m done expecting one. we kicked the termite nest and uncovered racism permeating further into the party than we could’ve anticipated, and I for one am done wasting my energy on so-called allies,” she wrote on Twitter.

The “termite nest” reference echoes a highly-publicized statement by notorious antisemite Louis Farrakhan who declared, “I am not an antisemite. I am anti-termite.”

Klein Knight herself had been a member of the Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee until the incident with Wheeler.

House Minority Leader Rep. Matt Wilhelm (D-Manchester) did not respond to a request for comment.

Sullivan said he and the police chiefs who go before the committee work hard to connect with all the members and educate them about the realities of police work. Ultimately, it is the voters who decide who gets to go to Concord he said.

“These are elected folks and their constituents elected them,” he said.

Jamie Brave, the wife of Strafford County’s Democratic Sheriff Mark Brave, is out as Frisbie Memorial Hospital’s Chief Nursing Officer, sources tell NHJournal. The decision came after her arrest on driving under the influence charges. 

Ellen Miller, director of marketing and public relations at the hospital, said Jamie Brave resigned on December 14, days after NHJournal reported on her arrest during a New Hampshire State Police saturation patrol in the Portsmouth region.  Jamie Brave has pleaded not guilty in the case now set for trial in March.

Jamie Brave’s husband Mark was elected Strafford County sheriff in 2020. Following news of the arrest, multiple sources told NHJournal there are concerns about the Brave’s business relationships.

The Strafford County Sheriff’s Department was hired by Frisbie this year to provide security services at the hospital’s Rochester campus.

Strafford County Administrator Ray Bower declined to comment about the contract, referring the matter back to Mark Brave. The sheriff declined to respond to multiple requests for comment about the contract.

All of the elected Strafford County commissioners — George Maglaras, Bob Watson, and Deanna Rollo — were also unwilling to comment on the contract between the sheriff and his wife’s (now-former) employer.

The Strafford County Sheriff’s Department, like most in New Hampshire, does not perform traditional law enforcement duties. Instead, the department oversees civil process, emergency communications, court security, prisoner transports, and some investigations. Sheriff’s departments can contract with municipalities to offer regular law enforcement services and usually do so in smaller communities that lack the money to pay for full-time police departments.

The Strafford Department started assigning deputies to the hospital this year to support Frisbie’s security staff. Miller said the terms of the contract has the hospital paying $55 an hour for each deputy assigned and it tops out at $100,000 a year.

Jamie Brave was not involved in negotiating the contract, Miller said. In fact, Jaimie Brave signed a conflict-of-interest form before the hospital entered into the agreement with the Sheriff’s Department, Miller said.

Frisbie wanted to beef up security after the December 2020 incident in which security guard Rick Semo was critically assaulted by a man outside the hospital’s emergency room, Miller said.

“We wanted to do everything to ensure the safety of our patients and staff,” she said.

Tyler Thurston, 31, of New Durham, allegedly punched Semo in the face during an altercation. Semo, 64, fell onto the pavement, striking his head. Semo died five days later as a result of the injury.

The Strafford County Sheriff’s Department also provides a deputy to work as the school resource officer in the Farmington School District and another to work as the truant officer in Farmington. That contract, also started this year, comes despite Mark Brave signing off on a Black Lives Matters letter demanding that New Hampshire do away with school resource officers.

Like Frisbie, the Farmington School District also pays the Sheriff’s Department to provide the deputies and their services.

Jamie Brave was stopped in the early morning hours of Dec. 10 during the State Police patrol and charged with DUI. It is not known if she was alone in the car at the time of her arrest. NHJournal has requested documents from the New Hampshire State Police related to the stop and arrest.

President Joe Biden may see himself as another FDR or LBJ, but progressive Democrats worry that, if he is the party’s banner carrier in 2024, their political hopes will be DOA.

And so, with Biden’s approval ratings languishing around 41 percent and new polls showing him losing a head-to-head match-up against Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.), the progressive group RootsAction has launched an ad in New Hampshire featuring Granite Staters urging, “Don’t Run, Joe!”

The ads will air on WMUR during evening news broadcasts as well as on late night talk show Jimmy Kimmel Live, according to a statement from RootsAction. In the ad, Rep. Ellen Read (D-Newmarket) summarized the message by saying, “Our ideas are way more popular than Joe Biden is.”

Reached this week by NH Journal, Read said the ads are meant to spark a conversation among Democrats about a better way forward than the current status quo. Biden, who was first elected to the U.S. Senate the same year Richard Nixon was re-elected president, is part of what is wrong with current American politics, Read said.

“He’s part of the old guard who does the bidding of crony capitalists,” Read said. “Joe Biden represents that last 40 years of the same old, same old.”

And when Read says “old,” she means it.

“It is clear that Democrats can put forward a better candidate than Joe Biden,” Read said. “And it is clear he has some cognitive decline. He has some good days and some bad days.”

Read, a vocal supporter of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders during the last two presidential primaries, said the Democratic Party needs to strongly consider moving away from Biden and the way things have been done. Biden is too moderate and too old, she said.

It’s a sensitive issue for the 80-year-old Biden, according to media reports. In response to the drumbeat of coverage regarding his age and mental acuity, Politico quotes the president barking at a staffer “You think I don’t know how f—ing old I am?”

In a new poll released by Newsweek on Tuesday, nearly 60 percent of voters said Biden should not run again, and most cited his age as the reason. In June, a University of New Hampshire poll found 65 percent of Granite Staters said they did not want Biden to run in 2024. More significantly, just 54 percent of self-identified Democrats wanted Biden on the ballot, down from 74 percent a year earlier.

Another area of common interest could be Biden’s ongoing battle to strip New Hampshire Democrats of the first-in-the-nation presidential primary. When news broke about the calendar Biden pushed on the DNC, RootsAction immediately spoke up.

“We believe President Biden’s move to replace New Hampshire with South Carolina as first-in-the nation is motivated by naked political self-interest, and nothing more,” RootsAction co-founder Jeff Cohen told NHJournal.

“Joe Biden should climb down from attempting to manipulate the Democratic primary schedule for his own narrow political purposes. As we pointed out when announcing the Don’t Run Joe campaign, ‘A president is not his party’s king, and he has no automatic right to renomination.'”

All of which means the Don’t Run Joe campaign could find fertile political ground in the Granite State. The push began just hours after last month’s midterms elections ended with text messages to local Democrats. “It’s up to NH Democrats to choose a bold leader who can defeat the fascistic Republican Party and help other Dems win,” one of text read.

RootsAction says Biden’s “moderate” policies on a host of issues like climate change, student loan debt, voting rights and healthcare have failed, and he is not likely to win in 2024.

Read has been disappointed in the anti-worker politics coming out of the Biden Administration, citing the recent railroad worker contract as an example. Biden’s team stopped rail workers’ unions from striking by forcing them to work under a contract already negotiated.

Read does not have a specific candidate in mind to replace Biden just yet. But she said with the midterms done it is time for liberals and progressives to reassess priorities. She said Biden has too often used progressive positions like student debt relief and marijuana decriminalization as campaign tools in a cyclical ploy for votes.

“We need people who will not play partisan games anymore,” she said. “Everyone is sick of the bitter divide we’re experiencing. The answer is not more (centrism,) the answer is good faith engagement.”

Mainstream New Hampshire Democrats have largely stayed out of the question about Biden’s reelection. Senator Maggie Hassan (D) for example, rarely mentioned Biden during her campaign this fall and dodged questions about his possible 2024 run. One establishment Democratic insider told NHJournal that “Biden’s victories and accomplishments” in recent weeks have made the president more popular among Democrats, and that if he runs, he’ll certainly be the nominee.

Progressives are still pushing the other way.

Former Rep. Sherry Frost, D-Dover, is an early backer of the effort to oust Biden.

“I am eager to support a candidate who understands the fatal dysfunction in our economy and is willing to hold the ultra-wealthy individuals and corporations to their obligations,” Frost said in a statement. “I am not confident that Biden is that candidate, and while I appreciate his rescuing us from another Trump term, I believe we need someone else to champion the big and systemic changes we need to continue to strive toward our more perfect union.”

Biden is expected to formally decide whether he will run again sometime around Christmas. So far, the only declared candidate in the 2024 race is former President Donald Trump.

Read is not concerned about the optics of the Don’t Run Joe campaign possibly harming Democrats. The campaign is meant to get Democrats thinking about alternatives, but it won’t interfere with Biden if he does get into the race. The Biden dissidents will stand down for the good of the party, she said.

“The Don’t Run Joe campaign ends after (he) decides whether to or not to run,” she said.

Hours after their party defied political history and won a sweeping midterm victory in the Granite State, New Hampshire Democrats started getting a new message on their phones.

Dump Joe Biden.

Texts from the Don’t Run Joe campaign started hitting New Hampshire numbers before all the votes were even counted, urging local Democrats to sign a petition asking Biden to not run for president in 2024.

“It’s up to NH Democrats to choose a bold leader who can defeat the fascistic Republican Party and help other Dems win,” one of the texts reads.

The effort is being led by the progressive group RootsAction, which spent 2020 working to convince leftwing voters to back Biden’s White House bid. Now, they say it is time for Democrats to embrace a true progressive.

“Unfortunately, President Biden has been neither bold nor inspiring,” the organization said in a statement. “And his prospects for winning re-election appear to be bleak. With so much at stake, making him the Democratic Party’s standard-bearer in 2024 would be a tragic mistake.”

The effort to push Biden out has been in the works for months. Norman Solomon, a co-founder of RootsAction, told The Hill.TV said in July voters want Biden to “get out of the way” so a more progressive candidate can take his place.

“That opens up the possibility of a progressive nominee,” Solomon said. “That’s where our future is, to get a logjam named President Biden out of the way for 2024.”

It’s not the first time the leftwing of the party has targeted an incumbent president.

“Our immediate goal within the Democratic Party is to ‘dump Biden,’ much as the anti-Vietnam-War forces among Democrats set out to ‘dump Johnson’ in 1967, which led antiwar candidates Eugene McCarthy and Robert Kennedy to enter the race,” according to their website.

Kicking Biden to the curb might seem outlandish but targeting Democratic activists in the First-in-the-Nation (#FITN) primary state makes sense if the goal is to lay the groundwork for a potential challenge. And, strategists say, given Biden’s age and health challenges, it is possible there could be an open primary regardless of the president’s plans.

At least one New Hampshire Democrat is publicly onboard. Outgoing state Rep. Sherry Frost (D-Dover) said in a statement she has lost confidence in Biden and wants a new candidate to lead the party.

“I am eager to support a candidate who understands the fatal dysfunction in our economy and is willing to hold the ultra-wealthy individuals and corporations to their obligations,” Frost said. “I am not confident that Biden is that candidate, and while I appreciate his rescuing us from another Trump term, I believe we need someone else to champion the big and systemic changes we need to continue to strive toward our more perfect union.”

However, progressive activist Gale Toale Taylor said on Twitter she wants the “Don’t Run Joe” campaign to stop.

“What the heck is this ‘Don’t Run Joe’ campaign? I got a text from Jon, a volunteer with ‘Don’t Run Joe’ asking me if I would prefer a candidate other than Joe Biden. My answer: STOP! Go Away! Our president is obviously doing what is best for us all,” Toale Taylor wrote.

Before last week’s midterms, Biden’s future was viewed as shaky at best. His approval ratings have been underwater for more than a year as the country struggles with record-high inflation and out-of-control energy costs. A September ABC News/Washington Post poll even found 35 percent of Democrats wanted a new candidate for the 2024 presidential election. A recent Reuters survey found Biden stuck with a 57 percent disapproval rating.

That may have changed somewhat after Biden scored a short-lived victory by canceling student loan debt, only for it to be overturned by the courts. He also pushed through trillions in spending and marijuana reform.

Still, Biden has long been dogged from his left, and RootsAction represents progressives who back candidates like socialist Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.

RootsAction was founded in 2011 by Solomon and Jeff Cohen, both progressive activists and journalists. The organization is in opposition to the Republican Party, as well as the mainstream Democratic Party represented by Biden, who is considered too centrist for the group.

“Our country faces an increasingly extremist Republican Party that is largely a subsidiary of corporate America, and a Democratic Party whose leadership is enmeshed with and compromised by corporate power,” RootsAction said on its website.

The November elections are shaping up to be a tough slog for Democrats in the New Hampshire House, and when they’re over, the caucus will have another battle brewing. Both Rep. Matt Wilhelm, (D-Manchester) and Rep. Steve Shurtleff, (D-Penacook) have announced they plan to run for House Democratic leader.

It is a contest that could once again crack the brittle facade covering tensions between the caucus’s disgruntled progressives and establishment members who currently hold the upper hand.

Shurtleff, a former Speaker of the House, is solidly aligned with his party’s establishment wing.

Wilhelm is not part of the hardcore progressive group, perhaps best represented by outgoing member Rep. Manny Espitia, but he is closer to them than Shurtleff. Wilhelm also has the advantage of handling the money members are counting on to help win re-election. He heads the New Hampshire Democratic Victory Campaign Committee, and he has also been named a NewDEAL Leader by the national pro-growth, progressive NewDEAL network. It is a group that includes Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacy Abrams, Wisconsin Senate candidate Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

Shurtleff was waiting in the wings to take over for the liberal Renny Cushing (D-Hampton) as he battled cancer. Cushing died in March from complications of cancer and COVID-19. But his ascent was blocked by progressives who kept him from taking even temporary leadership of the caucus. 

Instead, Nashua’s Rep. David Cote took over as Minority Leader, despite the fact he hadn’t been to Concord in years due to fears of COVID.

Shurtleff announced his candidacy via Twitter on Wednesday. Wilhelm announced his earlier this month. “I would like to publicly announce my candidacy for the next Speaker of the House. Tough times demand tough leadership. I would appreciate your support,” Shurtleff wrote.

Shurtleff’s announcement inspired immediate pushback from outgoing and outspoken Rep. Sherry Frost, (D-Dover.)

“Define ‘tough leadership’ please, because what I saw (and heard, from you) was that you saw your job as ‘protecting the minority’ when you were last Speaker,” Frost tweeted in response.

When contacted by NHJournal, Frost declined to clarify her statement saying she is not running for reelection. She refused to answer if she thought Shurtleff was the right person for the job, or who she would support in his stead.

“I would hope that my remaining colleagues would choose someone who understands and is comfortable with legislative strategy and has no patience for nonsense at the well,” Frost wrote. 

This is Wilhelm’s second run for House leadership. He put his hat in the ring ahead of the 2021 session, saying New Hampshire Democrats needed to change their message after losing control of the legislature even as Joe Biden was winning the state by nearly eight points. 

“After the setbacks of early November, we would be remiss if we did not re-examine our strategy and tactics for how we govern, how we campaign, and how we communicate with the working families of New Hampshire and those who feel like they don’t have a voice,” Wilhelm wrote in a letter to his House colleagues.

Shurtleff earned Cushing’s ire in the lead-up to the leadership election for the 2018 House session. Cushing accused Shurtleff of gaming the date of the party caucus in order to shut out potential rivals.

“As a loyal Democrat, it saddens me to realize that while the Republicans are having a robust contest to see who will emerge as the majority party’s candidate for Speaker, the incumbent leadership of the minority party apparently doesn’t feel the need to, or doesn’t want to, involve rank and file Democrats in the decision about who will be the party’s Speaker candidate and what policies, program and vision that nominee will bring to the contest,” Cushing wrote.

Jack Cocchiarella, the progressive Gen Z Democratic activist accused of sexual harassment, is now suing a Dartmouth College student for allegedly spreading rumors about sexual assaults online. 

The lawsuit, filed in the United States District Court in Concord, targets Dartmouth student Nathan Kim. It claims Kim spread false stories online about Cocchiarella raping and assaulting several women on campus.

Cocchiarella, who has done paid political consulting for Democrats like Florida’s Charlie Crist and Georgia’s Marcus Flowers, has denied all accusations of any sexual impropriety. Cocchiarella further claims he has never been investigated by Dartmouth’s Title IX Office.

NHJournal spoke to one woman who said Cocchiarella sexually harassed her and inappropriately touched her. That incident resulted in Cocchiarella receiving a letter from Dartmouth’s Title IX Office laying out a disciplinary course of action and threatening further sanctions if Cocchiarella did not comply. The copy obtained by NHJournal included what appeared to be Cocchiarella’s signature.

As rumors about Cocchiarella swirled online last summer, the Dartmouth Democrats Twitter account published a tweet claiming Cocchiarella was kicked out of the club due to multiple allegations of sexual assault. That tweet was later taken down and the club issued a statement saying that it did not condone the use of the tweet. NHJournal contacted a source close to the situation who confirmed Cocchiarella was in fact kicked out over the accusations. 

Kim’s attorney, Benjamin King of Concord-based Douglas, Leonard & Garvey, declined to comment on the specific allegations laid out in the lawsuit.

Cocchiarella’s lawsuit alleges Kim started an online harassment campaign using anonymous accounts on various social media platforms accusing Cocchiarella of rape as he was gaining fame for his progressive views.

“Kim individually and in concert with others has continued to propagate and publish the false statements and lies that Jack is a ‘rapist,’ ‘raped his classmates,’ ‘raped 6 women,’ ‘raped 8 women,’ ‘raped unconscious girls,’ and is ‘getting away with rape,’” the lawsuit states.

The negative attention stirred by Kim’s posts has threatened Cocchiarella’s lucrative political career, tarnished his reputation as he transfers to Columbia University, and even caused threats according to the lawsuit.

“To this day, Jack lives in fear for his life and safety as a result of the false statements and lies being spread by Kim,” the lawsuit states.

Cocchiarella’s attorney, Susan Stone, told NHJournal in August her client is innocent of any sexual violence.

“To be clear, Jack has never been accused of sexual assault, and he has never been the subject of a criminal or Title IX campus investigation,” Stone wrote in a letter to NHJournal. “He vehemently denies that he was subject to those allegations.”

The lawsuit claims Kim’s harassment started after Cocchiarella confronted Congressman Madison Cawthorn when the North Carolina Republican made an appearance at Dartmouth College along with Republican congressional candidate Karoline Leavitt.

Cocchiarella’s video of his confrontation with Cawthorn went viral and helped propel Cocchiarella into becoming a progressive influencer. According to a report in the Free Beacon, Crist’s campaign has since paid Cocchiarella’s firm $2,250 for digital consulting. His firm got another $40,000 from the Flowers’ campaign. 

Cocchiarella also appeared on a YouTube television show for the Lincoln Project, the anti-Trump political action committee founded by alleged sexual predator John Weaver. Cocchiarella was on the show to plug his own political podcast, Zoomed In.

The alleged victim who spoke to NHJournal said Cocchiarella used his status as a male feminist and progressive to ingratiate himself to her. His behavior deteriorated over a few weeks into stalking-type behavior and included unwanted touching.

“What was scary is he said a lot of really misogynistic things,” she said.

The woman told NHJournal she was shocked by Cocchiarella’s online persona as a feminist ally and progressive fighter when she feared him.

“How does he have this platform as a feminist?” she said.

In the past few months, Sen. Maggie Hassan has called for building more of former President Donald Trump’s border wall, supported a “racist” policy to block asylum seekers, and promoted more fossil fuel production — all positions that anger progressives. She is facing zero competition for the Democratic nomination.

Gov. Chris Sununu signed a budget last year that cut taxes, created Education Freedom Accounts, and blocked government agencies from using race-based CRT content. And for his trouble, he is facing five GOP primary opponents.

And that, political observers say, is the difference between New Hampshire progressives and far-right conservatives: Conservatives fight and progressives tweet.

New Hampshire progressives went after Hassan on Twitter again last week, for example, accusing the Democratic incumbent of hurting minority communities because of her stance on immigration. 

But so far, the same progressive community has failed to hold Hassan to account in real life.

Using news that racist flyers targeting immigrants were being distributed in Nashua, activist Asma Elhuni called out Hassan for her record on immigration.

“People are saying no to hate because of a racist flyer against immigrants in Nashua. We need this same pushback against @SenatorHassan. Her policies are actually more dangerous than fliers that incite violence. She is actually causing violence,” Elhuni claimed.

Progressives like state Rep. Maria Perez (D-Milford) have been trying for months to speak with Hassan about her position on Title 42 and her newfound support for building a wall at the southern border to no avail. Activist Alissandra Rodriguez-Murray said Hassan is basically running for re-election as a member of the GOP.

“Unfortunately, @Senator Hassan has chosen to run as a Republican in Dem clothing. For months constituents have begged her to hear us on this issue and she has refused, pandering instead to racists who demand ‘border control.’ We will not sacrifice our people for her reelection,” Rodriguez-Murray said on Twitter.

Even New Hampshire Quakers, famous for their pacifist beliefs, are hitting Hassan hard for her immigration platform. The American Friends Service Committee called on Hassan to rethink her stance on Title 42, which allows the United States to expel immigrants and those seeking refuge as asylum seekers.

“@Maggie_Hassan, asylum seekers and other immigrants are our family members, our neighbors, and our community members; your actions should be in service to, not in opposition to, their well-being, their rights, and their dignity,” the Friends wrote on Twitter.

Hassan opposes lifting Title 42, a move President Joe Biden wants to make saying that it would harm security at the border.

“Repealing Title 42 without a plan in place will do nothing to promote a responsible border policy that keeps our country safe and lives up to our humanitarian values. I urge my colleagues to join us in supporting this bipartisan bill, and I look forward to hearing directly from border agents during my trip to the border this weekend about what additional steps the administration must take to strengthen border security,” Hassan said in a statement.

Hassan took flak for a spring trip to the Southern border where she shot campaign videos calling for tighter security. She even said the border needs more “physical barriers,” aka “The Wall.”

“It’s very clear the administration needs to address certain gaps in the physical barriers along the border,” Hassan said.

And still — no progressive challenge.

U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas has been even more open in his rejection of progressive policies, but like Hassan, he has yet to pay a price. Pappas supports increased fossil fuel production, has broken his “no fossil fuel” campaign money pledge, and opposes Biden’s student debt bailout — a touchstone of progressive politics. And yet he doesn’t face a primary challenge or significant public criticism from the Granite State left.

The fact that Democrats like Hassan and Pappas are not facing a primary opponent — or even serious discussion of a primary challenge earlier in the cycle — has observers saying there is no progressive movement in the Granite State. Former congressman and outspoken progressive Paul Hodes doesn’t agree.

“If you take a look at many of the younger Democrats who are coming up, and you read the blogs, and you read Twitter, and you follow social media, there is a strong progressive movement that is in line with New Hampshire’s independent and quirky politics,” Hodes told NHJournal during a recent podcast. “But it’s fair to say the more moderate wing of the Democratic party has had more [electoral] success.”

Meanwhile, progressives continue to avoid criticizing their fellow Democrats in the press. Neither Elhuni nor Maggie Fogarty with the American Friends Service Committee responded to requests for comment. Rodriguez-Murray responded by saying she refuses to speak to NH Journal.

“Please remove me from your contact list,” she wrote in a message.

Rodriguez-Murray is angry over NH Journal’s coverage of her Twitter comments referring to Jewish people as termites.

Other progressives are practicing their own form of avoidance. Environmental activist group, 350 NH, for example, is skipping endorsements for federal races this election cycle rather than being forced to denounce Democratic lawmakers like Hassan and Pappas for their embrace of fossil fuels.

That is in stark contrast to activists on the right. In 2016, when conservatives were upset with Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte over her rejection of Donald Trump (among other issues), they ran two other candidates in the general election. Independent Aaron Day took more than 17,000 votes, and Libertarian Brian Chabot got more than 12,000 votes.

Ayotte ended up losing to Hassan by just 1,017 votes.

Progressives have an uphill battle winning in New Hampshire, according to Hodes. Even if New Hampshire voters want some change from their elected officials, most Granite Staters want incremental change, not the big, structural changes progressives favor.

“I’m not sure voters are that attracted or feel comfortable with wholesale change,” Hodes said.

New Hampshire progressives say they’ve had enough of Sen. Maggie Hassan and what they call her “racist”  policies on immigration, and they’re not planning to support her re-election in November.

Tension between Granite State progressives and the governing establishment is nothing new. What is notable, however, is the willingness of progressive activists to criticize a powerful incumbent Democrat so publicly.

“Maggie Hassan is racist. No need to dance around the obvious for much longer,” said Marcus Ponce de Leon, until recently an executive team member of the New Hampshire Democratic Latino Caucus.

Rep. Maria Perez, D-Milford, another leader of the Latino Caucus, says she’s been trying to get Hassan to meet with members of the Latino community for months, to listen to their concerns about her immigration stance. Perez has finally had enough with the state’s junior senator.

“I asked Hassan today for a time to meet and she said that she’s not meeting with us and if we need to ask questions to speak with someone in her office,” Perez said over the weekend. “I’m done supporting someone who doesn’t have time to meet with us.”

After her narrow victory in 2016 — she defeated incumbent Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R) by just 1,017 votes — Hassan was a reliably liberal vote, voting with Democratic leader Sen. Chuck Schumer 96 percent of the time. But as the political climate changed and her re-election approached, Hassan began shifting her stances on issues like increased drilling for oil, tax cuts for fossil fuels and building more of Trump’s border wall — all positions she voted against in the past.

The straw that broke the camel’s back was Hassan’s trip to the southern border, where she recorded a video calling for more enforcement and “physical barriers” while standing in front of a barb-wire laced section of the Trump wall. She also endorsed continuing the Title 42 policy put in place during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic by the Trump administration, allowing border officials to immediately turn away would-be undocumented migrants without allowing them into the country.

Ponce de Leon said Hassan’s supporters in the New Hampshire Democratic Party are endorsing white supremacy by not holding her to account. He called the New Hampshire Democratic Party an embarrassing disappointment.

“I’m struggling with parsing white supremacy vs. those who support @SenatorHassan … Today many of them flat out said they didn’t care what black and brown people are going through. They chanted ‘603 for Maggie’ as if they hadn’t heard our testimonies,” Ponce de Leon wrote on Twitter. He was referencing the chaotic scene outside the New Hampshire Secretary of State’s office Friday when progressives and Hassan backers tried to shout each other down as the senator filed to run for re-election. Security had to repeatedly intervene, and Hassan was eventually forced to flee the Secretary of State’s office out the back door.

Talking to reporters after her filing, Hassan appeared to confirm Perez’s account that the senator is unwilling to meet with Latino leaders.

“I have spoken with some of their members and my team continues to have conversations,” Hassan said. “But we have a disagreement here,” Hassan said. “I do not think the administration should lift Title 42 until there are resources at the border to ensure safety and security. All sides of this issue agree that, when Title 42 is lifted, we’re going to see an increase in illegal border crossing attempts,” she said. “I respect they have a disagreement with me about this. At the end of the day, I need to stand up for the safety and security of my state and my country.”

Progressives are not satisfied. 

Several weeks ago, activist Asma Elhuni confronted Hassan at a public event, an encounter caught on video. Rather than answer Elhuni’s questions, Hassan responded by telling the young activist she didn’t know what she was talking about.

“First of all, you have some facts wrong,” Hassan said. “What I understand is what I need to do is to make sure that we have a safe, orderly migration at the border.” Hassan also claimed she had spoken to migrant families and was genuinely interested in their concerns.

“You’re actions speak louder than your words,” Elhuni responded.

“You’re not interested in hearing my side,” Hassan concluded and walked away, accompanied by her handlers.

Robin Vogt, co-chair of the New Hampshire Progressive Coalition, called Hassan’s immigration policies disgusting, and he said Democrats who do not take progressive issues seriously will start to face challenges from the left.

“Holding my own party accountable does not mean myself and others are being ‘unreasonable’. It simply means that we are ready for political leadership to start listening and take action here in New Hampshire. If not, we come for your seats, and you will get called out,” Vogt wrote on Twitter.

Hassan is viewed as unusually vulnerable in a state that rarely votes for Republicans at the federal level and where no GOP challenger has yet emerged from the Republican field. The conservative group One Nation just announced a nearly $1 million buy targeting Hassan, who narrowly won the seat in 2016 by just 1.017 votes.

Ironically, progressive attacks on Hassan could fit in with her campaign strategy of triangulating against her own party. The Associated Press published a story Monday listing Hassan as one of several Democrats “actively trying to distance themselves” from the Democratic Party. They note she’s running a TV ad accusing Democrats of getting the issue of gas prices wrong (“I’m taking on members of my own party to push a gas tax holiday.”)

On the one hand, polls show the Democratic Party is struggling to earn voters’ trust on the top issues of the day — the economy, gas prices, crime and the border. On the other, Hassan’s approval ratings continue to lag in the low to mid 40’s, meaning she needs an energized Democratic base to turn out if she hopes to win re-election. Will they turn out?

“Senator Maggie Hassan will criticize Trump when he’s in office but literally support those same racist policies as if her party’s name will always protect her,” Elhuni tweeted this weekend. “This is the time for bravery. People need to stand up to Hassan and say no to racism.”