District 1 congressional candidates on why they are the best equipped for office

In the primary for New Hampshire's 1st Congressional District, 10 candidates leverage their experience to display their unique qualifications for office. Proximity to former President Donald Trump, status as a New Hampshire native and readiness for office are hotly contested across the field.

Former State Rep. Tom Alciere of Nashua is a self-declared “orthodox Libertarian extremist.” Alciere staunchly opposes any form of governmental restrictions on individual liberty, including drug laws, public school, Border Patrol, immigration restrictions and law enforcement. Alciere said rather than “throw money at an issue,” he looks at problems more broadly and targets their root causes. 

Shortly after his 2000 election, Alciere came under fire for his stance in favor of police killings — a stance that he doubled down on in an interview with The Daily Sun: “[Police officers] are members of an organized force that is on a mission to intimidate humans into obeying a multitude of blatantly unjust laws ... Serves them right,” he said. Because of this controversy, Alciere resigned from the Legislature in January 2001. He later ran unsuccessfully for U.S. Senate and Congress several times. Alciere said he will not compromise on his beliefs going forward. “I've got to tell it like it is and not hold back the way I was holding back in 2000,” he said.

State Rep. Tim Baxter of Seabrook labels himself as a “conservative fighter.” Elected for the first time in 2020, Baxter owns a real estate business and started a nonprofit that helps those who struggle with substance abuse. His agenda in Congress would be reform against what he sees as corruption, closing the southern border and addressing inflation. Baxter said he is unique because he would never sell out to special interests.

Baxter believes that state and national legislatures — who gets on which committees, what bills get to the floor — are run by a network of bribery.

“I take issue with people writing million dollar checks to get themselves on committees. I take issue with the whole way D.C. is run,” he said. 

On the issues, Baxter said, “We need to completely dismantle the bureaucratic state in this country,” which includes the FBI, Department of Education, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Internal Revenue Service. To tame inflation, he would work toward a balanced federal budget. Though he acknowledges that he is young at age 25, Baxter emphasized that his voting record in Concord speaks for itself.

As a former broadcast journalist, Gail Huff Brown said her experience with investigative reporting equipped her for the duties of a congressperson. “The skills of investigating are invaluable in Washington at a time when there's so much confusion about what's going on there,” she said.

Brown also is the wife of former Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown. Her politics are informed by her status as a military spouse, ambassador’s wife, mother and grandmother. She believes this background is a platform for her to cut through policy confusion, understand geopolitics and relate to the struggles of those she represents.

Though she has never run for office, Brown said, “I think that life experience really matters when you're dealing with people's lives.” Her life experience, she emphasized, distinguishes her from other candidates.

Brown is not the only candidate in this race who has been pressed about her professed roots and long-standing ties to the state. Brown described herself as “a homeowner and taxpayer in Rye for over 30 years” and stressed that the Seacoast is the birthplace of her husband and current residency of her daughter’s family.

On the issues, Brown highlighted increased border security, gas tax suspension, overall government spending cuts, and a federal parents’ bill of rights as policy priorities. 

Mark Kilbane did not respond to multiple requests to be interviewed for this story. According to his campaign website, he owns a “New Hampshire finance company and has worked in Washington, D.C., law firms, and as a strategic advisor on macroeconomic stabilization.” He is also a U.S. Army veteran and a film producer. Kilbane’s website lists veteran support, lowering taxes and stopping “woke classes” to raise education standards as his top policy priorities. His website states that he is running because the “Live Free or Die” spirit “has been quashed by the divisive identity politics propounded by liberal campus professors and parroted by mainstream media.” 

Karoline Leavitt is a 2019 graduate of St. Anselm College who worked as assistant press secretary in the Trump administration and communications director under Congresswoman Elise Stefanik. Leavitt is an Atkinson native who highlights the small-business background of her family. 

Leavitt, who brands herself on her “America First” credentials, said her time in the Trump press office gave her experience in organization and research skills as well as experience defending conservative policy. It is also what made her want to run for office herself. 

“It fired me up, frankly, to see career politicians who have been down there longer than I have been alive, ripping off hardworking taxpayers like myself and my family and enriching themselves,” Leavitt said.

Though Leavitt has been criticized as younger and untested compared to her competitors, she sees this as an asset.

“Our nation is lacking young, energetic, vibrant leaders who are listening to people and are unequivocally going to put them first,” she said. She advocated for congressional term limits.

On the issues, Leavitt said she is guided by her conservative upbringing: small-business regulatory relief, Department of Education abolition, educational choice and cutting corporate taxes are policy priorities. 

Mary Maxwell is a writer and self-proclaimed “constitutional maniac.” Maxwell described herself as a sociobiologist, someone who aims to understand human social behaviors through evolutionary biology. “I’m very interested in the human animal and why we do what we do, including politically,” she said. 

Maxwell has a doctorate of philosophy degree in political science but said her intimate knowledge of the Constitution and of Congress’ boundaries as well as her awakening to the threats of globalism — which she defines as “the one world preparation for the global reality and the global religion and everything being all as one” and absence of U.S. sovereignty — are what qualify her for service.

Maxwell said her two policy priorities would be cleaning up the Department of Justice and protecting the Earth: she believes that DOJ prosecutors are corrupt and that the government is allowing the air to be filled with aluminum particles and nanoparticles. She also said she believes that, through COVID measures and through the influence of George Soros on American politics, the country is on a path to authoritarianism.

Matt Mowers of Gilford won the 2020 Republican primary for this seat. Mowers worked on the Trump transition team and in the State Department under Trump as a senior White House adviser. Mowers said this experience tested him in ways no other candidate in the race has been tested.

“A lot of other folks can talk about things — things I've actually done and I will do again,” he said.

In the Trump administration, Mowers said he worked toward closing the southern border, ending cross-border fentanyl trafficking and fostering American energy independence. During this election, he said, oil prices and inflation join those issues as top of mind.

Mowers is another candidate who, in this race and in 2020, has been accused of shallow roots in the state. Mowers described an upbringing where his family moved around a lot, including a stint on the Seacoast, and his young family’s current love for Gilford.

Mowers said that though he has conservative convictions and fervent patriotism, he knows there are policy areas where he can work with everyone, such as setting congressional term limits and limiting congressional insider trading — something for which incumbent Chris Pappas advocates.

Exeter native Russell Prescott served two stretches in the state Senate, 2001-2005 and 2011-2017, before filling the executive council vacancy left by Chris Sununu when he was elected governor. Prescott's professional background was in water systems engineering, and he passed the business he received from his father down to his own children.

Prescott’s policy priorities are promoting a healthy business climate, creating budget surpluses and fighting the substance abuse crisis. He highlighted his experience balancing the budget in the state House from a $300 million deficit: “We were able to balance the budget without raising taxes.”

Prescott got into politics because of his opposition to a state sales tax, but his pivotal moment came when he lost reelection in 2006. His philosophy going forward after that race would be to refuse negative tactics. “It’s more important than ever to keep your integrity,” he said. He thinks officials should not arrive in office having burned bridges and stepped on others.

“When I got back into the state Senate in 2011, I feel as though I got the most accomplished — and I won over and over again,” he said. “Just telling the voters who I was, what I wanted to accomplish.” This positivity, he emphasized, also keeps him fair and open minded. Prescott said an effective representative must have a soft heart and open ears.

Kevin Rondeau of Manchester did not respond to interview requests for this story. According to his Facebook page, Rondeau distinguishes himself from other Republican candidates in this race by being pro-choice. He describes himself as someone who has lived in New Hampshire his entire life, and worked here until he recently became physically disabled.

Rondeau has made posts criticizing Washington Democrats, who he describes as hypocritical of their own professed values. He has made posts criticizing the use of tax dollars for nonessential or, in his view, morally wrong agencies and argued that the federal government should return more money to the state and local level. He has called for a defunding of the police and stated that he is pro-gun and pro-balanced budget. He has criticized both President Joe Biden and U.S. military entanglements overseas.

Derry native Gilead Towne is a salesperson for a jewelry company. The Salem resident volunteered for Trump’s campaigns. He believes that “being a good salesperson is very much needed in politics” because it involves listening to someone’s needs and delivering for them.

“You have to be able to be humble, you have to be able to find creative solutions that work for both sides,” he said. Towne criticized the inflammatory rhetoric used by both parties as an unproductive tactic to “rile up votes.” 

Towne’s top policy priorities include budget balancing, border security and, primarily, rooting out Chinese spies in the U.S. government.

“We have to identify the foreign influence that they have in this country in our institutions and then we have to, unfortunately, stop it,” he said.

Towne described himself as an everyman, having no major campaign machine behind him. “I'm also in touch with what most people are facing,” he said. “Politicians are out of touch with that reality. The media is out of touch with that reality. I am in touch with that reality.”

When many of these candidates announced their run a year ago, New Hampshire’s redistricting process was still in the works. The Republican Legislature proposed several maps that would make this the first congressional district to strongly lean red. But with the veto of Gov. Sununu, who said the maps didn’t pass the “smell test” of gerrymandering, the final redistricted map came from the state Supreme Court. 

The court’s redistricting approach was one of least change: the new map moves just five towns from one district to the other for population balance. Both districts remain highly competitive in a general election, where the primary winner will face two-term incumbent Democrat Chris Pappas. 

The state primary is Sept. 13 and the general election is Nov. 8.

Editor's note: Mark Kilbane has withdrawn from the District 1 congressional race.