NEWFIELDS, N.H. — After six months of campaigning, voters in Delaware, New Hampshire and Rhode Island will head to the polls on Tuesday as the 2024 election cycle's primaries reach their final stretch.
And the hotly contested primary for New Hampshire governor is the hotly contested race between Republicans and Democrats to replace Republican Gov. Chris Sununu, who is not running for reelection after winning four consecutive two-year terms as governor of New Hampshire.
And the election in New Hampshire, a battleground state in general elections every year, is seen by political observers as the only competitive gubernatorial election in the nation this year.
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New Hampshire Republican Governor Chris Sununu is interviewed by Fox News Digital on July 11, 2024 in Newfields, New Hampshire. (Fox News – Paul Steinhauser)
The polling and fundraising front-runner for the Republican nomination is former state attorney general and senator Kelly Ayotte, who broke with former President Trump after the release of the infamous “Access Hollywood” video and narrowly lost her bid for re-election to the Senate in 2016.
But Ayotte supported Trump this year when he ran to reclaim his old job in the White House.
Ayotte told Fox News during the New Hampshire campaign
Her opponent, former state Senate President Chuck Morse, has touted his conservative record and support for Trump, but the former president has remained neutral in the race.
Ayotte, who received Gov. Sununu's endorsement this summer, told Fox News earlier this year, “The path that Governor Sununu has set for us is a path to prosperity and greater freedom. … I want us to continue on that path. I'm grateful for his leadership and the work he's done and I look forward to continuing his success for our state.”
Former Sen. Kelly Ayotte, the leading contender for New Hampshire's Republican gubernatorial nomination, speaks to voters at the Hampton Beach Seafood Festival on Sept. 7, 2024. (Kelly Ayotte campaign)
Morse has repeatedly questioned Senator Ayotte's conservative credentials and her support for Trump.
“I think there's a big difference between me and Kelly Ayotte,” Morse said this summer. “I started out as a conservative, I finished as a conservative as Senate president, and I promise to be a conservative as governor. … That's not what Kelly did when she went to Washington.”
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Ayotte pushed back against Morse's attacks, noting that Morse unsuccessfully ran for the Republican Senate nomination in 2022, adding, “I've known Chuck for a long time and for him this is a sad way to end a political career.”
Former New Hampshire Senate President Chuck Morse, who is running for Republican gubernatorial nomination, shakes hands with a voter during the Labor Day Parade on September 2, 2024 in Milford, New Hampshire. (Chuck Morse Gubernatorial Campaign)
The Republican nominee will face off in a fierce eight-week battle leading up to the general election against former Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig or Cinde Warmington, the only Democrat on New Hampshire's Executive Council, the five-member elected committee that approves state agency heads, judges and major state contracts.
Like the Republican gubernatorial primary, the Democratic nomination race is also a fierce battle of words.
In a state hit hard by the opioid crisis, Gov. Craig recently released an ad criticizing Warmington's past work as a lobbyist for Purdue Pharma, the pharmaceutical giant known for making the controversial painkiller OxyContin.
Warmington fired back with an ad of his own, accusing Craig of launching the attacks to cover up his record of leading New Hampshire's largest city out of a crime and homelessness crisis.
New Hampshire Democratic Congresswoman Annie Kuster participates in the 2022 Independence Day Parade in Amherst, New Hampshire on July 4th. (Fox News – Paul Steinhauser)
The race in New Hampshire is focused on the 2nd Congressional District, which covers the western and northern half of the state, to replace six-term Democratic Rep. Annie Custer.
Kuster is endorsing former staffer and ex-executive council member Collin Van Ostern, who narrowly lost to Sununu in the 2016 gubernatorial election.
But Sen. Maggie Hassan, a former governor, and former four-term Gov. John Lynch have endorsed Van Ostern's rival, Maggie Goodlander, a former top lawyer in President Biden's administration, assistant attorney general at the Justice Department and wife of Biden's national security adviser, Jake Sullivan.
Maggie Goodlander and Collin Van Ostern, Democratic candidates for New Hampshire's 2nd Congressional District, participate in a primary debate in Manchester, New Hampshire, on June 7, 2024. (NH Today Show)
The Democratic congressional primary has been marred by carpetbagger allegations against Goodlander, who hasn't lived in the district for years but who, through her husband, has ties to senior Democrats, including former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State and 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
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Bikram Mansharamani, who unsuccessfully ran for the 2022 Republican Senate nomination, and Lily Tann Williams, who is running for the House of Representatives nomination for two consecutive terms, are seen as front-runners in the crowded Republican primary.
Delaware also has an open gubernatorial seat due to the term limits of its current governor, Democrat John Carney, who was elected to three terms as Delaware's only member of the House of Representatives, then served two terms as lieutenant governor and was later elected and re-elected as governor, but is running for mayor of Wilmington, the state's largest city.
Delaware Governor John Carney (Rachel Wisniewski/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Lt. Gov. Bethany Hall-Long, New Castle County Mayor Matt Meyer and National Wildlife Federation CEO and former state natural resources commissioner Colin O'Mara are running in the Democratic primary to replace Carney.
Retired police officer Jerry Price, state Assembly Minority Leader Michael Lamone and small business owner Bobby Williamson are seeking the Republican nomination for governor.
There are also primaries for the vacant lieutenant governor's seat and the state's U.S. House of Representatives seat, with Representative Lisa Blunt of Rochester, a Democrat, running to replace Senator Tom Carper, also a Democrat.
In Rhode Island, Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse is facing an unlikely primary challenge from former Republican gubernatorial candidate Mike Costa.
State Rep. Patrick Morgan is the leading Republican candidate for the Senate seat, but in a Democratic-heavy state, it will be an uphill battle to defeat the White House in November's general election.
Get the latest 2024 campaign updates, exclusive interviews and more on Fox News Digital's Election Hub.
