Around New England

New Hampshire Democrats Pick Up Republican-Leaning Seat in State House of Representatives

March 12, 2020

New Hampshire Democrats gained a seat in the state’s legislature this week, adding to their majority.

Democrat Kathleen Martins won a special election race in Merrimack County’s 24th district over Republican Elliot Axelman, as HuffPost reports.

The district leans Republican. Martins will replace former state Representative Dick Marple, a Republican who died in December 2019. 

“Kathleen knocked on hundreds of doors and earned the support of voters across the political spectrum,” Raymond Buckley, chairman of the New Hampshire Democratic Party, said in a statement Tuesday, March 10, according to the The Union Leader. “Her efforts show that Democrats can be competitive even in communities like Hooksett, where Donald Trump won by 10 points in 2016. We are proud of the work she has done to turn Hooksett blue.”

As WMUR reports, Martins received 1,000 votes while Axelman got 961.

According to the Union Leader, Axelman, a libertarian Republican, had advocated for abolishing public schools and called for New Hampshire to secede from the United States in now-deleted tweets.

With the win, Martins will serve the remainder of the term and will be up for re-election this November. 

While New Hampshire’s governor, Chris Sununu, is a Republican, both the state House of Representatives and state Senate are controlled by Democrats. The governor and all 400 state representative seats and 24 state Senate seats are at stake in the November 2020 election.