On Sept. 10, former Manchester, N.H. mayor Joyce Craig won the Democratic gubernatorial nomination. Craig — who served as mayor from January 2018 to January 2024 — won the primary with a six-point lead over executive councilor Cinde Warmington. Next month, she will face Republican nominee Kelly Ayotte in the race to replace incumbent Republican Gov. Chris Sununu, who announced in July 2023 that he will step down after four terms in office. The Dartmouth sat down with Craig to discuss her candidacy and tenure as Manchester’s mayor.
Why are you running for governor?
JC: I want to make sure we’re strengthening our local communities and ensuring that residents across the state have the opportunity to succeed. For the last six years, I served as mayor of Manchester and dealt with a lot of our statewide challenges. I know we can be doing better supporting our communities and lifting families up, and that’s exactly what I want to focus on. There’s an awful lot on the line this election when it comes to protecting reproductive freedom, strengthening our public schools, addressing the housing crisis, addressing climate change and decreasing costs for families.
Which issues would be your top priorities as governor?
JC: First and foremost is protecting access to abortion and reproductive freedom in the state of New Hampshire. It’s under attack right now. We saw Republicans this past legislative session propose a 15-day and a 15-week abortion ban. Kelly Ayotte, my opponent, has voted for a 20-week national abortion ban. She’s voted multiple times for defunding Planned Parenthood and shepherded Justice Neil Gorsuch through the Supreme Court process. She’s basically spent her career attacking reproductive freedom, and that’s not what we need in the state. I trust women to make their own healthcare decisions, and I’ll fight to ensure it stays that way.
I’m also hearing about housing affordability and feel strongly that we need to act. Statewide projections show that we need 60,000 housing units by 2030 in the state of New Hampshire to meet the demand, and I have the experience from when I was mayor of getting this done. I have the hands-on experience of negotiating with developers, incentivizing affordable housing and working with local communities to build the housing that we need. As I’m traveling around the state, I’m hearing firsthand from residents about the challenges they face, and we have put together a comprehensive plan to address housing. It includes things like providing technical assistance to communities to redo their zoning ordinances. Today, we don’t have the housing to meet the needs, and we’ve got to start building so young people, seniors and hard-working families can afford to live here.
I first got involved in public service when I ran for school board many years ago, and public education has been my passion. I truly believe that quality public schools lead to thriving communities and create opportunities for our kids and their futures. Right now, we have a very dangerous voucher program that’s siphoning millions of dollars away from our public schools and putting it toward private and religious schools. That’s wrong because the state is not adequately funding public education. As governor, I will be putting our public tax dollars toward public schools and will be asking for education commissioner Frank Edelblut’s resignation on day one because we need an education commissioner who understands and appreciates public education.
In a New Hampshire Institute of Politics poll, a plurality of polled New Hampshire voters — 24% — ranked the economy and inflation as the most important issues facing America today. As governor, what steps would you take to strengthen the economy and lower costs for New Hampshire residents?
JC: I am hearing that from residents too. The increase in property taxes, for example, is something that comes up a lot. My office led an effort to apply for a very competitive federal grant. It was one of the Build Back Better Regional Challenge grants, and we were the only municipality to win. We had $44 million coming into the city to build out lab space. It’s increasing access to affordable childcare, providing workforce development and generating 7,000 new family-sustaining jobs. Since then, Manchester, Nashua, N.H. and the southern tier of the state have been deemed a tech hub. I feel strongly that these are opportunities that we should be going after basically in all corners of the state, and I have the experience of doing that.
I also have the experience as mayor of putting together a $400 million budget and basing it on the priorities that are needed within our community, and I’ll take that experience to the governor’s office. Right now, there’s a lot of downshifting of costs to local communities. When the state doesn’t pay for all public education, it gets downshifted. When it doesn’t pay for all of the retirement costs for our First Responders, that’s downshifted and increases local property taxes. I want to make sure we’re doing everything we can to stop that downshifting because it’s really hurting people at the local level.
There’s a tremendous opportunity with renewable energy and diversifying our energy to decrease energy costs for residents in New Hampshire, and I’ve put together a comprehensive plan to do that. More than 60% of residents in our state are interested in the legalization of cannabis, and we’re the only state in New England that hasn’t legalized it. I support that. It will generate a significant revenue source that we can put toward education and toward affordable housing.
New Hampshire has some of the most purple politics in the nation: the state legislature and executive council are currently controlled by Republicans, while the state is represented in Congress by Democrats. As governor, how would you reach across the aisle and work with Republicans to address the state’s issues?
JC: I am focused on the issues that matter most to residents, and I think we can find common ground and put party aside by focusing on these critical issues that residents and businesses are facing. I’ve experienced this at the local level. When I was mayor back in 2020, for example, I worked with all of the other mayors in the state. We were Democrats, independents and Republicans, and we were on a Zoom call during the COVID-19 pandemic. We just asked each other, “What is the number one issue that you are facing?” To everyone’s surprise, we all said the same thing. At that time, it was homelessness. We collectively worked together to advocate for more support at the state level.
I understand what’s happening at the local level and can really work with our local communities from the state level to address these statewide challenges. When it comes to healthcare, housing, education and saving our residents money, these are things that cross party lines and I look forward to working with everyone to address them.
How would your experience as the mayor of Manchester inform your approach to governing the state?
JC: In Manchester, we don’t have a city manager, so it was my job to develop the $400 million annual budget. I nominated city department heads and city commissioners. I negotiated contracts. I managed all of the city departments. There are a lot of similarities between what I did as mayor and the governor. While I was mayor, I worked directly with the governor and with many departments at the state level, so I have an understanding of the workings at the state level. Being from the local level, I also see how the state can work better with our local communities. The state provides a lot of funding to local communities for certain programs, but a lot of times it doesn’t talk with the local communities. If we were to work together, we could really make sure that the limited resources and funds that are coming into our communities are optimized.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
