New Hampshire Bulletin news (NH politics, elections, State House)

{
  "attribution": "By Ethan DeWitt, New Hampshire Bulletin (States Newsroom), https://newhampshirebulletin.com/2026/11/03/new-hampshire-democrats-face-an-uphill-battle-to-win-control-of-state-senate/. Republished under CC BY-ND 4.0 per https://newhampshirebulletin.com/republishing-guidelines/",
  "authors": [
    "Ethan DeWitt"
  ],
  "body_text": "As voters fan out to polling places and newsrooms prepare all-night coverage, much of the attention today will focus on control of the U.S. House and Senate.\n\nBut what about New Hampshire’s legislative chambers?\n\nRecent state polls favoring Democrats and Democratic advantages in candidate recruitment this year suggest the New Hampshire House is in reach for a Democratic flip.\n\nThe Senate might be a different story.\n\nWhile the New Hampshire House and Senate have stayed under single-party control for every election since 2012, Republicans have historically had a better chance of holding the Senate than the House. Since 2001, Republicans have won the House in nine of the 13 elections, but have won the Senate in 10.\n\nAnd the Republican-led redistricting in 2022 has resulted in a state Senate map that has helped Republicans win more seats than the statewide voting percentages would predict.\n\nRepublicans currently control 16 of 24 seats; to win back a 13-seat majority, Democrats, who currently have eight, would need to take back five of those seats. To win a tie, they will need four.\n\nBut Democrats have a margin problem too: Of the five sitting Republican incumbent senators who won with the smallest margins in 2024 — and who are in theory the best targets for Democrats — only three of the five won with tight margins. In 2024, Democrats lost to Republican Sens. Tim McGough by 1.86%, Victoria Sullivan by 2.89% and Denise Ricciardi by 3.06%. But Democrats lost to the next two most-vulnerable Republicans — Sens. Daniel Innis and Kevin Avard — by more than 11%.\n\nThe takeaway, says Anna Brown, executive director of the Warren B. Rudman Center for Justice, Leadership & Public Service at the UNH Franklin Pierce School of Law, is that Democrats have an uphill battle.\n\n“Democrats don’t just need to get 51% statewide,” Brown said in an interview Monday. “They need to have an incredible performance. They need to have huge voter turnout in these Republican-heavy districts as well.”\n\nH… [5,673 more characters]",
  "byline": "Ethan DeWitt",
  "categories": [
    "Election 2026",
    "State House",
    "Carryl Roy",
    "Daniel Innis",
    "Denise Ricciardi",
    "Kevin Avard",
    "Leonard Bell",
    "Matt McLaughlin",
    "midterm election",
    "NH House",
    "NH Senate",
    "Rebecca Harned",
    "Shannon Chandley",
    "Tim McGough",
    "Victoria Sullivan"
  ],
  "excerpt": "As voters fan out to polling places and newsrooms prepare all-night coverage, much of the attention today will focus on control of the U.S. House and Senate. But what about New Hampshire’s legislative chambers? Recent state polls favoring Democrats and Democratic advantages in candidate recruitment this year suggest the New Hampshire House is in reach …",
  "image_caption": "The sun sets behind the State House on Nov. 2, 2026, the eve of an election that will decide which party controls the New Hampshire House and Senate for the next two years. (Photo by Dana Wormald/New Hampshire Bulletin)",
  "image_url": "https://newhampshirebulletin.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/statehouseelex-1024x655.jpeg",
  "license": "CC BY-ND 4.0",
  "license_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/",
  "published_at": "2026-11-03T10:00:36Z",
  "republished": false,
  "source": "New Hampshire Bulletin",
  "title": "New Hampshire Democrats face an uphill battle to win control of state Senate",
  "url": "https://newhampshirebulletin.com/2026/11/03/new-hampshire-democrats-face-an-uphill-battle-to-win-control-of-state-senate/",
  "word_count": 1225
}