On Jan. 9, former Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., was officially sworn in as the 83rd governor of New Hampshire. Ayotte — who defeated former Democratic Manchester, N.H., mayor Joyce Craig in the gubernatorial election last November — succeeds Gov. Chris Sununu, who spent four terms in office.
In her inaugural address in Concord, Ayotte said she intends to “do what is best for all of us” and “keep our state moving in the right direction.”
“I’m going to be a governor for you whether you’re a Republican, a Democrat, an independent … because our state is so much bigger than a party or an ideology,” she said.
Throughout her address, Ayotte outlined her plans for social issues. Despite public concerns from some about Ayotte’s stance on abortion, she said she would not support additional restrictions on abortion access in New Hampshire, for example.
“If you send me legislation that further restricts access to abortion beyond our current law, I will veto it,” she said.
New Hampshire state law currently bans abortion after 24 weeks with narrow exceptions for medical emergencies but not rape or incest, according to the New Hampshire Public Radio. While on the campaign trail, Ayotte said she “respect[ed]” the current legislation for being a “compromise.”
In her address, Ayotte also reiterated her legislative plans for public education, immigration and housing. If passed, the governor’s agenda would ban cell phone usage in public schools, expand career technical education, ban sanctuary policies — which limit the ways in which local law enforcement can cooperate with immigration agents, according to The New York Times — and increase housing in New Hampshire, she said.
“We need to expand public-private partnerships and continue the great work that is already happening to increase workforce training programs and help our community colleges expand the pipeline,” she said. “We need our young people to understand that there are so many amazing jobs that are open in our trades and that those jobs need to be filled.”
Ayotte said she plans to ban sanctuary policies — such as those in North Hampton, N.H. and Amherst, N.H. — because of their threat “not just to communities but to a budget.”
“[Massachusetts has] spent one billion dollars housing migrants rather than spending it, investing it, on their law-abiding citizens,” she added.
Dartmouth Political Union president Mac Mahoney ’26 questioned the efficacy of this policy, noting that he does not believe New Hampshire has been significantly impacted by mass immigration.
“I don’t think we have a huge migrant crisis in the state … so I’m not really sure if there’s going to be any tangible effects [from Ayotte’s policy],” Mahoney said.
According to the New Hampshire Bulletin, previous attempts to pass legislation banning sanctuary cities in the Granite State — the most recent of which occurred last spring — have failed due to Democratic opposition.
For housing, Ayotte proposed leveraging underutilized state property and assets to “make sure they are in their highest and best use,” adding that she believed New Hampshire needed to “tackl[e] our housing crisis” in order to “remain the economic beacon of New England that we are.”
“Our state has so much opportunity to offer, but our lack of housing supply and sky high costs are making it increasingly difficult for individuals to tap into it,” she said.
In practice, Ayotte’s plan, as laid out in her address, would entail repurposing schools into new housing. Similar policies have already been enacted in towns such as Rochester, N.H., under mayor Paul Callaghan, a Republican.
Among her other policy goals, Ayotte said she plans to increase services for veterans by working with nonprofits, enforce conservation easement in the north country on the Connecticut Headwaters tract and prevent a landfill from being placed in Dalton, N.H.
Ayotte also outlined her plans for economic growth. She said she believed that challenges facing Massachusetts — “out of control spending, tax hikes, illegal immigrant crisis, people and businesses leaving in droves” — make the neighboring state a “cautionary tale” for New Hampshire. The warning echoed her campaign slogan, “Don’t Mass up New Hampshire.”
“Year after year, their model of higher taxes and more government has made it harder for small businesses and families to make ends meet,” she said.
In contrast, she said New Hampshire has “gotten stronger” because of “our leadership, our policies and our commitment to taxpayers.”
Dartmouth Conservatives vice president Jack Coleman said he believes Ayotte’s usage of Massachusetts as a comparison during her campaign was a “smart play.”
“I think she provides, to some extent, a blueprint for how Republicans in blue-ish areas can win going forwards,” he said. “For that, I think she should be commended.”
Ayotte said she plans to “look for better ways to do things with less money” and announced the creation of the Commission on Government Efficiency — a riff on President-elect Donald Trump’s new Department on Government Efficiency — which aims to “make us smarter than ever before when it comes to saving taxpayer dollars” by reducing state-level spending. COGE will be led by Republican and former New Hampshire Gov. Craig Benson and businessman and New Hampshire Lottery commissioner Andy Crews.
Dartmouth lecturer and New Hampshire state Rep. Ellen Rockmore, D-Grafton 12, said she believes Ayotte’s proposed tax cuts are “not sustainable.”
“The Republican model of governing is not sustainable because they’re simply defunding the public and there’s not going to be any money to do anything,” she said.
Government professor and New Hampshire state Rep. Russell Muirhead, D-Grafton 12, who was reelected for a third term in November, added that he believes the decision by Republican lawmakers to abolish the state’s dividends and interest tax in 2022 is negatively impacting government funding and property taxes.
“They’re going to be sloughing off costs to the towns and cities of New Hampshire, causing property taxes to spike,” he said. “… One of the things that’s aggravating this [the rise in property taxes] is the decision by the Republican Party to abolish the dividends and interest tax.”
Coleman, however, praised Ayotte’s proposed tax plans and said he was “looking forward” to her governorship.
“I’d love to see [Ayotte] make New Hampshire a national role model,” he said. “It’s a role model [for] tax policy. [There is] no income tax. [There is] no sales tax. It’s a lead[ing] efficient government compared to other states and other Republican states.”
Representatives from Ayotte’s campaign and Dartmouth Democrats did respond to requests for comment by time of publication.
