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This morning, former U.S. Senator and Republican candidate for governor Kelly Ayotte officially filed to be on the ballot in this year’s race for governor.
While today’s filing makes it official, Ayotte has been locked in a messy primary against former state Senate President Chuck Morse for months, moving further to the right on a number of key issues and proving to Granite Staters exactly why she’s not fit to be our next governor.
Throughout her campaign, Ayotte has lied to voters about her dangerous track record and restrictive views on reproductive rights, including her support for a national abortion ban, calling for the overturning of Roe v. Wade, and serving as the “sherpa” for the Supreme Court nomination for Trump’s chosen Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, which led to the eventual overturning of Roe. She also voted for the Blunt amendment, which would have allowed insurers and employers to deny coverage of contraception and IVF treatment, among other things.
Ayotte has also embraced fringe members of her party and the dangerous policies that they push her to adopt, including by once again endorsing former president and convicted felon Donald Trump. Ayotte has also stood by state Rep. Jon Stone – and has refused to renounce his endorsement when given the opportunity – despite the revelation that he “threatened to kill fellow police officers in a shooting spree, and murder his chief after raping the chief’s wife and children, all while he was already under scrutiny for his inappropriate relationship with a teen girl.”
Ayotte has also refused to participate in debates with her opponent in what has turned out to be an increasingly contentious primary. This has only caused more problems for the NHGOP, which was forced to beg their candidates to stop fighting, yet those calls have been unheard, as both candidates continued to trade barbs today on filing day.
“Granite Staters are smart enough to recognize Ayotte’s lies about her staunchly anti-choice record and understand the threat she poses to their reproductive rights. They won’t believe her craven election-year spin,” said NHDP Chair Ray Buckley. “Throughout her career, Ayotte has been dead-set on ripping away Granite Staters’ reproductive freedom. She called for a national abortion ban, limiting women’s access to birth control, and played an essential role in stacking the court with anti-choice extremists that eventually overturned Roe v. Wade. No matter how hard she tries, this isn’t a record Ayotte can run away from, which is why she will once again be rejected by New Hampshire voters come November.”