Republican Gov. Kelly Ayotte secures re-election in New Hampshire

Republican Gov. Kelly Ayotte has won a second two-year term in New Hampshire, a state that has trended blue at the national level, NBC News projects.

Ayotte fended off a challenge from Democrat Cinde Warmington, a former state Executive Council member. The result is the fifth straight win for the GOP in New Hampshire’s gubernatorial contests dating to 2016, even as Democrats have carried the state in every presidential election since 2004.

Ayotte previously was a U.S. senator and the state’s attorney general. During her re-election campaign, she touted her efforts to speed up housing construction, tackle the cost of electric bills and reform the bail system. She has also used the state’s more heavily Democratic New England neighbors as a foil: One of her campaign slogans was “Don’t Mass Up New Hampshire,” a reference to Massachusetts’ liberal policies.

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Ayotte has vacillated on her stance toward President Donald Trump. She initially supported Trump in 2016 but withdrew her backing after the “Access Hollywood” tape surfaced. She then endorsed him in 2024 but has not been among his vocal supporters. Warmington sought to tie Ayotte to Trump, referring to the “Trump-Ayotte economy” during the campaign.

Ayotte outperformed Trump in 2024, winning her race by 9 points as Trump lost New Hampshire by 3 points.

Ayotte’s campaign repeatedly attacked Warmington as an “opioid lobbyist,” referring to her work representing Purdue Pharma. Warmington said she did not know at the time that Purdue Pharma engaged in “massive criminal fraud.”

Warmington said in an ad last month that her opponent was attacking her for work she did “decades ago and regret[s].” In a separate video, she said that had she known in 2001 what the country later learned about Purdue Pharma, “I would never, ever have done this work.”

Warmington did not face any opponents in the Democratic primary. She previously ran for governor in 2024 but lost in the primary.

She highlighted affordability as a major campaign issue, saying on her website that “the prices of groceries, housing, electricity and property taxes are crushing New Hampshire families,” adding that her opponent was “making it worse.”

Warmington has said she would put a “temporary moratorium on large-scale data center permits” while the government builds a regulatory framework. She has also said she would legalize recreational cannabis, take Trump to court “when necessary,” address the cost of housing and suspend the gas tax, pointing to rising fuel costs amid the war with Iran.