NH Republican race for Congress District 1 looks close: Here are 5 leading candidates

The race for New Hampshire’s First Congressional District’s seat will take its final shape Sept. 13. Republican primary voters will decide who will face off in the general election against U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas, the two-term Democratic incumbent from Manchester.

The five Republicans running in the Sept. 13 primary present voters with the opportunity to nominate a conservative from the younger generation of the party in state Rep. Tim Baxter, former White House aide Karoline Leavitt or former U.S. State Department official Matt Mowers, who was the 2020 nominee for the CD 1 seat, losing to Pappas in the general election.

Also running is former journalist in Gail Huff Brown (wife of former U.S. senator and ambassador Scott Brown) and business owner Russell Prescott, who is a former state senator and executive councilor.

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According the most recent UNH Survey Center poll published Aug. 31, Mowers leads the race among likely Republican primary voters with 26%, followed by Leavitt at 24%. Huff Brown was third at 16%, and Baxter and Prescott both polled at 4%. According to the poll, 26% of likely primary voters remain undecided.

New Hampshire’s CD 1 has historically been one of the most “purple” in the country. Between 2010 and 2016, the seat flipped between parties each election. Frank Guinta was the last Republican to win the district 2014.

This spring, Republican Gov. Chris Sununu vetoed a map for CD 1 that would have tilted it toward Republicans as part of the decennial redistricting process. The New Hampshire Supreme Court wound up redrawing the district, barely changing the existing political boundary lines. According to the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, both of New Hampshire’s congressional races will be toss-ups in the 2022 midterm election.

Where do Republican candidates in NH CD-1 stand on issues?

The Republican U.S. House candidates were each given the same list of 10 questions ranging from the biggest issues they see facing New Hampshire, the economy, climate change and former President Donald Trump’s assertion that President Joe Biden was not legally elected in 2020.

The campaigns of Baxter, Huff Brown and Mowers did not respond to multiple emailed requests seeking comment sent to their official accounts. As of Sept. 6, Citizens Count was reporting none of this group of three had responded to its candidates survey, either, though the nonprofit, nonpartisan group compiled the candidates' positions on a number of issues, using other media sources and past statements from the candidates.

Leavitt and Prescott said they will support the Republican nominee for the CD 1 seat, whoever ends up winning the nomination. They both oppose raising the federal minimum wage and tighter gun regulations. Prescott attributed America’s mass shooting epidemic to the nation’s “mental health crisis,” while Leavitt said it was due to a “culture problem.”

Leavitt, a native of Atkinson, represents the next generation of the conservative movement. Now age 25, she has served as assistant press secretary for Trump in 2018. Most recently, she worked as communications director for U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-New York.

Leavitt said the major issues she seeks to address in Congress are controlling inflation and securing the southern border with Mexico. She said climate change is a “manufactured crisis by radical Democrats to shove socialism down our throats.”

“I am in this race to ensure my district has a homegrown fighter who can beat Chris Pappas, fight to drain the swamp, and put America first again,” Leavitt said. “We cannot afford another ‘go along, to get along’ politician who is bought and paid for by the DC establishment. When elected, I will continue to be an unapologetic conservative fighter for term limits, law and order, less government spending, strong borders, and election integrity.”

Prescott, of Kingston, is the president of wholesale water pump company, R.E. Prescott Co., and served most recently as an executive councilor from 2017-2021. Prior to that, he served five two-year terms in the state Senate from 2000-2004 and 2011-2017.

Prescott said his experience as a business owner and in public service sets him apart from his Republican counterparts. He said the United States can leverage its position as a leader in clean energy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. He said his top issue is balancing the federal budget.

“I have been a small business owner and operator for nearly 40 years, (and) I am uniquely qualified, with decades of public and private sector experience, to get to work on day one in Congress,” Prescott said. “I’m running a positive campaign on the issues that impact Granite Staters because they deserve an experienced adult in Congress. Washington is broken. We need to balance the budget to get our economy back on track.”

Prescott said New Hampshire’s abortion law was adequate to protect a woman’s right to choose. Leavitt said she believe life begins at conception and any abortion laws should be left to the states.

Leavitt asserted that Biden was not legitimately elected president, as Trump has done without evidence since 2020. Leavitt's campaign was asked to provide documentary evidence to support her claim, which was not included in her responses.

“Unelected bureaucrats circumvented state legislatures under the guise of COVID-19 to change election laws, which led to mass absentee ballots and fraud across the country,” Leavitt said. “The fake news media interfered in the election by censoring stories about Joe Biden and propping up false stories about President Trump.”

Prescott did not venture as far as Leavitt did in claiming that Biden did not win the presidency legitimately. Prescott said Biden is, “currently in the Oval Office” and said he seeks to “address any and all allegations of voter fraud.”

If elected, Prescott said he is willing to work with the Biden administration on opioid addiction treatment and prevention. He cited his experience on the Executive Council to help manage treatment programs, which would allow him “to set up similar methods of transparency and fiscal oversight that New Hampshire uses to ensure taxpayer dollars are spent wisely so that we can balance our budget while helping those afflicted with opioid addiction.”

“First, we must balance our budget to secure our borders,” Prescott said. “China and other countries continue to exploit our porous southern border and weak immigration laws to smuggle deadly drugs like fentanyl into America. In Congress, I will work tirelessly to gain operational control of our southern border, end human and drug smuggling and stop the flow of illegal immigration.”

Leavitt said she would be willing to work with the Biden administration to the extent it would not “compromise my conservative values.”

Mowers, according to Citizens Count, is in favor of expanding the Mexican border wall, opposed to Medicare for all, believes abortion law should be left up to states, favors marijuana legalization across the United States, opposes raising taxes to reduce the budget deficit, opposes limiting firearms for people under age 21, favors requiring voter ID, favors adding term limits to federal office, opposes ending qualified immunity for police officers, favors increasing budget cuts to match new spending and favors increasing oil and natural gas leases on public land.

Huff Brown, according to Citizens Count, opposes mail-in voting, supports current New Hampshire abortion laws and the right of states to set abortion law, favors expanding the Mexican border wall, opposes ending qualified immunity, favors requiring voter ID, favors banning federal funds for "divisive concepts" in schools, favors budget cuts to match new spending, opposes Medicare for all and opposes limiting firearms for people under age 21.

Baxter, according to Citizens Count, favors banning federal funds for "divisive concepts" in schools, opposes limiting firearms for people under age 21, favors adding term limits for federal office, opposes student loan forgiveness, supports a federal abortion ban after 24 weeks, opposes military aid to Ukraine, favors the Keystone XL pipeline, favors budget cuts to match new spending and favors increasing oil and natural gas leases on public land.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Here's 5 leading candidates for NH GOP Congress District 1 in primary