Sununu Wins Reelection; Democrats Hold Federal Offices: Election 2022

CONCORD, NH — A predicted red wave or even a tsunami washing over the electorate in New Hampshire was blunted by high voter turnouts across the state for the 2022 midterm election.

Republicans at the state level appear to have held their own. Gov. Chris Sununu easily won a fourth term for the corner office by about 71,000 votes, his second-largest victory. His Democrat opponent, Dr. Tom Sherman, conceded early in the evening.

Sununu thanked supporters at a party at Pinz in Portsmouth, where attendees enjoyed axe throwing, bowling, corn hole, arcade games, and more.

Sherman, in a statement, said he enjoyed meeting "incredible people across the state who are fighting every day to make New Hampshire a better place." He said he was "grateful for the support of Granite Staters, who believe we need to put people above politics" and wished Sununu, "as well as everyone who was elected tonight to serve our great state," the best.

Democrats Hold Federal Races

U. S. Sen. Maggie Hassan, U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas, and U.S. Rep. Ann McLane Kuster all won reelection by solid margins.

Kuster won a sixth term — the first time a Democrat has won a major office six times in a row. She thanked voters in the district for trusting her with another term.

“It is the honor of my life to bring the voices of Granite State families, seniors, veterans, small businesses, and communities to Washington and to deliver real change for our state," she said. "I am truly humbled by the outpouring of support. Thank you to Mr. Burns for a hard-fought race and for putting his name on the ballot."

2022 Statewide Results

Up to 80 percent reporting

Governor

Sununu 264,394 *

Sherman 193,437

Halldorson 3,720

Borysenko 2,120

U.S. Senate

Hassan 254,367 *

Bolduc 206,482

Kauffman 9,282

1st Congressional District

Pappas 136,332 *

Leavitt 115,525

2nd Congressional District

Kuster 121,159 *

Burn 92,394

Executive Council

District 1

Joseph Kenney 46,604

Dana Hilliard 45,409

District 2

Warmington 52,934 *

French 35,248

District 3

Stevens 48,107

Harake 41,182

District 4

Gatsas 46,413

Cavanaugh 42,845

District 5

Wheeler 33,918

Kelly 29,475

According to state Senate returns, Republicans have leads in 14 of the 24 seats.

Around The State

New Hampshire saw a heavy voting day at polling locations around the Granite State.

Several cities and towns — including Bedford, Concord, Merrimack, North Hampton, Portsmouth, and Salem, have closed, and unofficial 2022 election results will begin to be posted soon.

Voting was brisk across the state, with lines of cars in Bedford, Derry, Goffstown, Londonderry, Manchester, and Merrimack accessing community polling locations. Concord polling locations also saw some decent turnout — at Ward 5, one of the busiest polling locations in the city, about 470 votes had been cast in the first two hours of voting — about 15 percent of registered voters. At Ward 4, 427 votes had been cast — about 16 percent.

At Ward 7, around 3:15 p.m., 1,675 voters had cast ballots, about 55 percent of registered voters.

A small sampling of some of the political mailers sent to voters or dropped off at homes in Concord during the 2022 midterm election. Credit: Tony Schinella/Patch

At Ward 4, state Sen. Becky Whitley, D-Hopkinton, who was defending her seat against Linda Rae Banfill, a Republican who has run previously for the seat, said she was hoping for another term.

“I think things are going great,” she said. “I will say that in all the voters I have talked to on the doors, on the phones, people know that it’s the midterms, they have a plan to vote, (and) they are engaged in the issues … we’re expecting very high turnout.”

Unlike in 2020, she said, candidates could talk to voters in person, and those connections made all the difference.

During the last two years, even though Democrats were in the minority, Whitley had several bills approved into law by a Republican governor, Chris Sununu, and was encouraged by being able to work with the other side on some issues.

“The first year of my term, I worked with folks across the aisle, trying to find common ground,” she said. “The areas I work a lot on involve children and families and found I those Senators and House members interested in those issues and worked to get that done. Being in the minority is not ideal but I think in the Senate, there are 24 of us, and there is a well-practiced culture that we work together.”

Richard Manzo at the Goffstown polls on Nov. 8. Credit: Tony Schinella

At the Goffstown High School, dozens of supporters stood outside, backing their candidates, while cars slowly trickled into the parking lot to vote.

Richard Manzo, a Hillsborough County treasurer candidate, was standing outside the polls asking for votes against David Fredette, a Republican.

Manzo was one of two county candidates who gathered signatures to gain ballot access for the Libertarian line and won the Democrat ballot line via write-in. Democrats did not run a candidate in the treasurer race, and Manzo accessed the ballot line with 993 write-in votes. He said it showed a diversity of support for his campaign.

“Nine-hundred and ninety-three grassroots Democrats chose to vote for me because they know I’m more sensitive to the issues that everyday Americans face,” Manzo said. “I’m not going to be loyal to a party — I’m loyal to them. My only interest is in protecting the investments they make in our community. That means responsible spending, and it means preventing clumsy cuts to everything, too.”

Voting was busy at Goffstown High School on Nov. 8. Credit: Tony Schinella/Patch

Between 10:30 and 11 a.m., before Gov. Chris Sununu arrived at Bedford High School for a spell, hundreds of cars flowed into the parking lots. Cars were backed up onto Route 101.

Sununu felt confident of victory — the Real Clear Politics average of polls had him with a 17-point lead over Dr. Tom Sherman, a Democrat, and the turnout was strong around the state. He said Secretary of State David Scanlan’s prediction of record midterm turnout, close to 600,000 voters, hit it right on the head.

“Which is a good thing,” Sununu said. “It’s a strong day; a lot of people coming out; a lot of poll-standers. That’s always fun. And really, today is about going out and saying ‘thank you’ to everybody (who worked on the campaign). It’s a day to show a little gratitude.”

Sununu, whose voice was a bit hoarse, said there was much to do in his fourth term, including continuing the “good fiscal responsibility” the state had seen during the past few years and working on economic growth on the local level. He would also like to expand and improve on some of the accomplishments of the past, including education freedom accounts, the doorway around opioids and addiction, and investments in mental health.

“You can’t just make those investments and designs those systems and then say, ‘OK, we’re good,’ and then walk away,” Sununu said. “You’ve got to manage them; you’ve got to make sure that those roots are planted and firm so that those programs are successful not for two years but for 20 years. That’s really what you’re counting on.”

Gov Chris Sununu spoke with supporters and voters at Bedford High School on Nov. 8. Credit: Tony Schinella

Over at the Ward 2 polling location in Manchester, Nicholas Sarwack, a Hillsborough County attorney candidate, and his wife, Valerie Sarwark, a state representative candidate, were talking to voters at the polls.

Sarwack, like Manzo, also collected signatures and earned the Democrat’s ballot line by receiving 1,023 write-in votes. John Coughlin, his Republican opponent, received 98 write-ins on the Democrat line, he said. Sarwack ran two years ago but was not successful. When asked if he thought this would be his year, he said, “I think so.”

Sarwack said, unfortunately, Coughlin had two years to fix the problems in the county attorney’s office but had not. So, he decided to run again. Sarwack said he would work on meeting with current staffers to address some of the department's significant issues, including caseloads, salaries, and other issues. He said, ideally, attorneys should only be working on 150 cases a year.

Currently, attorneys are working on as many as 200 cases simultaneously, not just annually. Sarwack added he would also like to create a pre-trial process for lower-level offenders like the process other counties have. He said the elected county attorney, too, should be showing up to hearings and working on cases, especially to give others in the department the time they need to accomplish their work successfully. As a public defender, that is how he always worked.

“I believe it is a team effort to fix things,” he said. “(They) should roll up their sleeves (and go to work). That camaraderie and teamwork, that culture, is really needed to fix what is going on at the county attorney’s office.”

Election Results

The process of county candidates attempting to access the opposing ballot line has been going on for decades, with Democrats and Republicans often trying to secure the other ballot, especially if it was blank. This appears to be the first time in many years that Libertarians could access an opposing party ballot line.

In Derry, where Sherman met with voters around 2 p.m., cars were lined up for more than a mile on Hampstead Road to access the polling location.

Sherman, who brought his son along for the ride, said there was a “huge response” across the state, including getting a lot of “thumbs up” from voters, which made him think he was in a good position to win. He said promoting personal freedoms — including access to abortion in the late stages of pregnancy, which Sununu banned when he signed a budget with a rider included in it, was one of the main reasons.

“People are looking for change,” Sherman said, “A large number of people have come out saying choice was driving them.”

At the same time, he said, costs were increasing in nearly every sector of the economy, including property taxes, energy, and rent, all on the incumbent’s watch.

“Today, it’s all about which track you want New Hampshire to follow,” Sherman said. “Do you want New Hampshire to go down on the current track, which is not ‘live free or die,’ since so many of our freedoms have been taken away? Gov. Sununu is following the extremists in the Legislature. Or whether we want to go on track to make sure those people’s rights are respected, women have a right to choose, and property tax relief is actually a reality.”

There is a good chance if he wins, Sherman would face a Republican-controlled Executive Council, state Senate, and House, but he said that did not bother him. He would work across the aisle on legislation to move the state forward.

Keith Mitchell, a Republican running for county sheriff, was outside the Ward 7 poll earlier in the day and felt confident he would be successful, including in Concord, where he campaigned all day along with his supporters.

“I seem to be getting good responses from people coming out,” he said.

Mitchell said many voters who were Democrats told him he was the only GOP candidate they were voting for. His opponent, incumbent Sheriff David Croft, a Democrat, had connections to the city, since he grew up in Penacook, he said. But on Election Day, Croft was nowhere to be found in the city, which surprised Mitchell.

If elected, he said he would work to fix the staffing and personnel issues in the department, including morale and retaining the county's employees.

“We’ve got to create an atmosphere, within the office, that makes people want to stay,” he said. “That’s absolutely No. 1. And the reason it is No. 1, without personnel, you don’t get very far.”

Polling locations in Amherst, Exeter, Hampton, Londonderry, Nashua, and Windham will close at 8 p.m.

Secretary of State David Scanlan told election workers to prepare for “a larger than usual number of ballots that will require either hand counting of the entire ballot or which were counted by ballot counting device but have a write-in vote that must be recorded and reported.” He said overvotes must be fully hand-counted. This phenomenon was one of the reasons why returns during the September primary ran later into the evening than normal.

Caption: Upper left: Dr. Tom Sherman, D-Rye, speaking with supporters in Derry; state Sen. Beckley Whitley, D-Hopkinton, outside of the Ward 4 polling location in Concord; outside of the Ward 7 polling location in Concord, Keith Mitchell, a Republican running for Merrimack County Sheriff, left, and Bob Betrand, a Republican running for state representative, right; Karoline Leavitt speaking with voters in Londonderry; Nicholas Sarwark, a Hillsborough County Attorney candidate, who won both the Libertarian and Democrat ballot lines, with his wife, Valerie Sarwark, a state representative candidate in Ward 2 in Manchester; and Gov. Chris Sununu, speaking with the daughter of a supporter at Bedford High School.

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Sununu Wins Reelection; Democrats Hold Federal Offices: Election 2022

Turnout high; Republican Sununu easily wins reelection; GOP leads in 4 Executive Council seats, 14 state Senate seats; more results.

Tony Schinella, Patch Staff