By GARRY RAYNO, InDepthNH.org
CONCORD — The primary election may have had few surprises, but it should serve as a wakeup call for Republicans.
With both parties having hotly contested races for US Senate and US Representative seats, more than 40,000 Democrats turned out to cast ballots Tuesday than Republicans did.
The top of both tickets, the governor’s races, were not in question as incumbent Gov. Kelly Ayotte only had token competition, while former Executive Councilor Cinde Warmington ran uncontested for the Democrats.
The two nominees had healthy margins for their victories in the US Senate contest to determine who will follow retiring US Sen. Jeanne Shaheen as one of New Hampshire’s representatives in the US Senate.
Former US Sen. and US Rep. John E. Sununu was endorsed by President Trump and had the backing of the US Senate Majority PAC, although former Massachusetts US Sen. Scott Brown was also in the race.
In one of the few official race totals from the Secretary of State’s Office, Sununu received 75,789 in the primary and Brown received 29,672 votes. along with a number of other candidates including perennial US Senate candidate Andy Martin and Tom Alciere, who has achieved some notoriety over the years including being forced to resign after he was elected to the NH House in 2000 for advocating killing police.
Officially there were 111,018 Republican votes cast in the US Senate race, giving Sununu 68 percent of the vote, and Brown 27 percent.
On the Democratic side, US Rep Chris Pappas received 100,053 votes, while his progressive challenger Karishma Manzur received 50,307 votes, while the three other candidates received about 1,000 votes each.
The total Democratic votes in the US Senate race was 153,343 or 42,685 more votes than Republicans cast.
That means Democrats cast about 38 percent more votes than Republicans.
Pappas received 65 percent of the Democratic votes cast and Manzur 33 percent of the votes.
This race is considered one of the premiere races in the country and will draw tens of millions of dollars as it is thought to be key to who controls the Senate going forward as Republicans try to hold on to their four-seat majority.
Both candidates are from the moderate wing of their parties and are the establishment candidates with the backing of their parties’ hierarchies.
This race will bring US Senators and Representatives and Trump cabinet members to the Granite State with the question being if President Trump comes here to campaign for Sununu, given the president’s sinking approval ratings here and nationally.
At his acceptance speech Tuesday evening Sununu criticized Trump’s tariffs on Canadian products.
One tidbit, Sununu received 198 write-on votes on Democratic ballots, and Brown received 38.
However, Pappas received 480 write-in votes on Republican ballots, while Manzur received 134.
In the US representative races, which have official tallies from the Secretary of State’s Office, the most hotly contested contest was for the Democratic nomination to run for the 1st District seat Pappas is vacating to run for US Senate.
When the dust had settled late Tuesday night in the town halls and school gyms, Stefany Shaheen held on to defeat Maura Sullivan 29,571 to 27,859 votes or by about 2 percentage points.
The other interesting total belongs to progressive Carleigh Beriont who had 18,032 votes.
There were 80,173 Democratic ballots cast in the primary, meaning Shaheen received 37 percent of the vote, Sullivan 35 percent and Beriont 22.5 percent of the vote.
One interesting aspect of the race was that Sullivan won both Manchester and Portsmouth, the two biggest cities in the district, and still lost the race, due largely to the margin of Shaheen’s victories in two of the Strafford Tri-Cities Rochester and Somersworth. Sullivan also won Laconia while Shaheen did well in the more rural areas of the district.
Beriont won three communities in the district, Hampton, Newmarket and Tamworth.
The Republican ballots cast in the 1st District primary were 57,118 or a difference of 23,055 or 40 percent.
Seacoast businessman Anthony DiLorenzo won the Republican nomination for the 1st District race, with 29,409, or 51 percent of the vote, while Hollie Noveletsky had 14,980 votes, or 26 percent of the vote, and state Rep. Brian Cole received 8,050, or 14 percent of the vote.
DiLorenzo was endorsed by Trump, but Pappas has won the true purple district the last four elections and Carol Shea-Porter held the seat prior to that.
The 2nd District that leans more Democrat will be a rematch from the race two years ago as incumbent Democrat U.S. Rep Maggie Goodlander easily won the Democratic nomination and Lily Tang Williams won the GOP nomination.
Goodlander received 59,817 votes in the Democratic primary, or 82 percent of the vote, and progressive and state Rep. Paige Beauchemin received 13,205 votes, or 18 percenty.
Goodlander won every city ward, town and unincorporated place in the district.
With Beauchemin receiving 18 percent, Beriont 22.5 percent and Manzur 33 percent of the vote in their races, it does not look like a progressive wave in the Democratic Party no matter how Republicans try to spin it.
The total Democratic votes in the 2nd district was 73,167, while the Republican total was 53,343, a difference of 19,824 or a 37 percent difference.
On the Republican side, Williams received 31,357 votes, or 59 percent of the vote, while Dan Nicholson received 6,470 votes, or 12 percent, Victor Orlando received 6,309 votes or 12 percent and Michael Anthony Callis received 3,808 votes or 7 percent.
The Secretary of State’s Office has not released official figures for the governor’s race, the executive council races, nor the state Senate and House contests.
The Associated Press’s last figure for Ayotte’s race for governor showed her with 100,183 votes for the GOP nomination or 92 percent of the vote, but no figures are available for Warmington so it is difficult to tell what kind of support she has with the voters of her party who turned out for the election.
Some Republicans are touting that 20 percent of the Democratic voters did not vote for her, which could be very troubling for the Democrats in the general election.
However, with hotly contested US Senate, and two US House races just below the governor’s race on the ballot, Democratic voters will quickly switch back to Democrats if they leave the governor’s race blank which should make things a little better for those candidates down ballot like for state Senate and House.
Although there are not official figures for the House races, eight incumbents were defeated for re-election including long-time Rep. Ralph Boehm, R-Litchfield, who was targeted by the Free Staters running the House for his opposition to their stampede over local control for cities and towns with state mandated budget caps and zoning and planning restrictions.
Of the eight defeated, seven were Republicans and one was a Democrat from Strafford County. Two of the seven Republicans are from Derry, two others are from Rockingham County, and one each from Merrimack and Hillsborough counties.
While eight incumbents losing in the general election would not be an unusual number, it is in the primary.
Garry Rayno may be reached at garry.rayno@yahoo.com.