Hassan files for re-election, brings campaign to Keene

Jun. 11—Democratic U.S. Sen. Maggie Hassan stressed the need to protect abortion rights, suspend the federal gas tax and lower the cost of prescription drugs in a campaign stop in Keene Friday, hours after she filed for re-election to a second term.

Hassan, of Newfields, who was New Hampshire's governor from 2013 to 2017, spoke to supporters at the office of the OrganizeNH Democratic group.

She said her Republican opponents in the race would support the agenda of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and "do the bidding of big pharma and big oil."

"All of them say, if elected, they would ban abortion and defund Planned Parenthood. They have made very clear that if they are elected they will take away a woman's most basic fundamental freedoms," she told a group of campaign supporters and politicians.

"They apparently think that women have neither the capacity or the conscience to make their own critical decisions about some of the most complex and difficult choices about our health and our lives that we have to make."

This race is gaining national attention as one of those that could determine control of the Senate, which now has 50 Republicans, 48 Democrats and two independents who caucus with the Democrats. This effectively leads to a 50-50 split, with Democrats in control because Vice President Kamala Harris has the power to break tie votes.

Hassan's visit Friday comes two months after she participated in a workforce development roundtable at Keene State College, where she met with local education, community and business leaders.

Her Republican opponents have campaigned on fiscal conservatism, laying the blame for inflation on Democratic spending.

But she and others say this spending was necessary to prop up businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic, and that workforce and supply chain issues as well as the war in Ukraine are contributing to increases in prices for goods and services.

This week, she and other members of New Hampshire's congressional delegation announced New Hampshire will receive $50 million in federal funds to help bring high-speed Internet access to the most rural parts of the state.

She said at the Keene campaign stop Friday that she learned during the pandemic that some New Hampshire schoolchildren couldn't do their homework where they live because they didn't have access to high-speed Internet service.

"And now we're going to have high-speed, affordable Internet in every community in New Hampshire," she said.

She also touted her ability to work across the political aisle, including a bill she sponsored with Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., which protects patients from having to pay out-of-network medical costs while in an in-network facility.

"We stood up to the entire health care industry because we realized surprise medical bills worked well for the insurance companies and they work well for the health care providers, they just don't work very well for patients," she told supporters. "The law went into effect Jan. 1 and to date, estimates say that we have stopped 2 million surprise medical bills."

Hassan said she also supports an effort to allow Medicare to negotiate the price of prescription drugs with pharmaceutical companies to reduce the price of medicine for consumers and to reduce government costs.

She said this is just one expense that is busting budgets for average people.

"What I hear from families is that they are straining to keep up with the high price of gasoline now and that's why I'm proposing suspending the gasoline tax and taking measures to hold big oil accountable," Hassan said.

After her remarks to a few dozen supporters, Hassan said in an interview that she supports tighter gun safety measures.

"I have been a supporter for a long time of an assault weapons ban," she said. "You have to make sure you're defining it right, but at the end of the day, right now, we have to come together as a country and deal with gun violence."

She said she also supports expanded gun-sale background checks as well as proposals that seek to prevent gun sales to people at risk of harming themselves or others.

Her visit to Keene came the day she watched the first televised session of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol attack.

"It reminded me of how terrifying and terrible that day was for people in the Capitol but also for people in our country," she said.

Remembering back to that day, she said she felt protected by the Capitol police. It was only later that she realized the risk posed by the rioters.

"It frankly wasn't until I saw the footage that I realized how many people had breached the Capitol," she said.

In 2016, Hassan won her Senate seat by defeating the Republican incumbent, Kelly Ayotte, by 1,017 votes out of more than 730,000 cast.

Friday marked the end of the 10-day candidate filing period in New Hampshire. The state primary will be on Sept. 13, and the general election will be on Nov. 8.

After she filed for re-election Friday and before she reached Keene, Hassan grabbed a cup of coffee and some books at the Toadstool Bookshop in Peterborough, and visited with the owners, Willard and Holly Williams.

Hassan faces a crowded field of Republican opponents, including former Londonderry town manager Kevin Smith, N.H. Senate President Chuck Morse, Bitcoin investor Bruce Fenton and retired Army Brig. Gen. Don Bolduc. She also faces an opponent on the Democratic side, Paul J. Krautmann of Keene, a retiree who served as a U.S. Army colonel and practiced as a dentist.

Rick Green can be reached at rgreen@keenesentinel.com or 603-355-8567.