Program explores the history and future of New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation primary

MEREDITH — New Hampshire’s last presidential primary was loaded with controversy. Former New Hampshire Secretary of State Bill Gardner will present a program Tuesday, Oct. 7, discussing the history (and maybe the future) of New Hampshire’s Presidential Primary as the next offering in the Meredith Historical Society’s 2025 Speaker Series.

Doors at the Meredith Community Center open at 6:30 p.m. with the program starting at 7 p.m.

New Hampshire presidential primary elections for both major political parties in 2024 were among the most eventful ever. On the Democrat side, then-President Joe Biden attempted to take New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation status away, only to win a write-in vote when it was held anyway. Republican front-runner Donald Trump cast doubt on future elections when he told voters if he was elected, they “won’t have to do it anymore.”

“Whatever these contemporary issues portend for the future, past primary elections have been chockfull of their own stories and controversies,” said MHS President John Hopper. “And who better to tell those stories than Bill Gardner, who served nearly a half century as New Hampshire’s secretary of state.”

Bill Gardner is a fourth-generation Granite Stater. He is a graduate of the University of New Hampshire, where he was class president in 1970. He has advanced degrees from Harvard and USC, as well as an honorary doctorate in public service from St. Anselm College.

Beginning in 1973, he was elected to three consecutive terms to the New Hampshire House of Representatives. In 1976 he was elected for the first of 22 terms as secretary of state by his fellow legislators. He was the youngest and longest serving New Hampshire Secretary of State since 1680.

Respected by his fellow secretaries across the country, Gardiner served as president of the National Association of Secretaries of State (1998-1999). He is the author of “Towns Against Tyranny, Hillsborough County During the American Revolution 1775-1783” (1976) and co-author with the late Gov. Hugh Gregg of “Why, New Hampshire, the First-in-the-Nation Primary State” (2003).

A resident of Manchester, Gardiner also owns and operates a tree farm and maple sugar operation in the Town of Danbury.

For more information, visit meredithhistoricalsocietynh.org.