Brian Cole looks to flip 1st Congressional District seat red

Rep. Brian Cole (R-Manchester) has spent the last four years serving constituents in the Statehouse. Now, he's aiming for Washington, to serve the large and dynamic Congressional District 1.

Cole is running for Congress, because he thinks New Hampshire is being ignored in Washington. With the Granite State federal delegation currently made up of Democrats, Cole thinks it is time for some red representation, and has no problem working across the political aisle to get things done.

Who he is

Cole, the son of a state trooper and a park ranger, is a lifelong New Hampshire resident who graduated from Raymond High School, before receiving degrees in economics and finance, as well as accounting, at Southern New Hampshire University.

After graduating from college, Cole started a wholesale company, where he imported tools to be distributed to retail stores from a 47,000-square-foot warehouse in Manchester. Cole and his brother owned the company, and after 25 years running the business, Cole retired two years ago, at age 52.

“I’m taking this race as my new full-time job,” Cole said. “This is what I’m doing, six days a week."

Cole is happy with the success he's had, and thinks this is his opportunity to give back to his home state.

He has been out campaigning, and is constantly hearing about energy affordability and food prices, as well as housing. He thinks that trend is heading in the right direction.

When Cole is out on the campaign trail, he often hears two questions: what differentiates him from other candidates? And, why is he running?

“I am the only legislator in the race,” Cole said. “I’m the only one who’s got any legislative experience. So, when I go down to Washington, Day 1, I’m going to be able to hit the ground running."

In Cole’s first term as a state representative, he was on the Commerce and Consumer Affairs Committee. In his second term, he became vice chair of the Housing Committee, as well as a member of the Ways and Means Committee. He said these are two areas in his wheelhouse.

“Two good committees,” Cole said. “If I get to Washington, I know I’m a freshman, but I have experience on Ways and Means, and would love to be on Ways and Means in Washington."

On the Housing Committee, the idea was not to have a heavy hand, and take away local zoning control. The main focus was getting rid of red tape, shortening timelines for building permits, and pushing for interagency cooperation at the state level.

Cole is focused on a bipartisan platform.

“I am looking for doing things for the general public, and the good of the people,” Cole said. “That’s where my head’s at."

Cole said 85% of the time, everyone at the Statehouse agrees. It's the other 15% being reported as divisive, Cole believes, because that gets headlines.

“The majority of the time, both sides, generally, agree.”

Biotechnology focus

Last year, the state changed the Right to Try law, where patients on the verge of death are able to try any medication to save their life. That bill was signed into law last week, by Gov. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH), expanding patient rights. Now, Cole said, the Granite State has the best laws in the country for the biotech industry.

There's an example of how this helps, right out of Manchester. A company called EpiBone grows replacement human bone and cartilage, using stem cells, to help people with bone cancer or deformities gain a better quality of life. Cole said the bill Ayotte signed allows the company to do business in New Hampshire.

“Right now, Cambridge, Massachusetts, is the biotech hub of the world,” Cole said. “We want New Hampshire to be the biotech hub.”

He pointed out this is trillion-dollar industry could be a “big boom” and could create excellent-paying jobs.

“This whole biotech industry right now, Americans have to leave the country in order to have access to their treatments,” Cole said. “They shouldn’t have to. They should be able to do it, right here in New Hampshire.”

Focus on energy

“Everything is tied to energy,” Cole said.

Cole met with representatives from the Department of Energy, in Washington, last fall, and said he was very interested in what they are doing in Michigan. He said Michigan has a nuclear power plant in operation the past several decades, much like New Hampshire. He saw some ways things could be more efficient here.

He said, in Michigan, there are small modular reactors being used, and technology has come far enough where they can use spent fuel, being stored like it is in Seabrook.

Cole said there are two types of uranium. One is uranium-235, which is only about 5% of the rod, and powers the Seabrook plant. The other 95% of the rod is uranium-238, which is what new modular reactors use.

“The beautiful thing about it is it’s super safe,” Cole said. “It implodes on itself if something goes critical. What you end up with at the end is nuclear-grade medical isotopes. Then the rod actually turns into platinum, so it’s an inert material, and you’re not going to have radioactive waste anymore. It’s amazing. They think there’s a couple hundred years of energy just sitting down in Seabrook.”

Cole said New Hampshire residents are paying 30% higher electric rates than the rest of the country, so energy is a massive focus. This, he said, should be another bipartisan effort, because everyone is feeling the rate's effects when paying bills.

“Would you rather have an extra $50 in your pocket, so you can buy some groceries that month?” Cole asked. “I would think so.”

He also said 50% of the energy in New Hampshire is natural gas, so the issue goes beyond nuclear power. He has ideas to save about 15% on natural gas prices, and make the state a hub, so they can sell natural gas energy to surrounding states.

Jones said the Jones Act was created about a century ago to protect maritime shipping, and restricting only American crews in American ships to move fuel from port to port. The only way for New Hampshire to get fuel currently is by port, as there is no pipeline. Because fleets don’t exist like they did when the act was created, he wants to eliminate this hurdle.

“I’d like to see a permanent exemption from the Jones Act for the State of New Hampshire.”

Securing the northern border

Cole said the last time he was in Pittsburg, there was only one border patrol agent for the 58-mile border with Canada. He said it’s amazing you can basically just walk across the border, leading to a major drug-smuggling operation involving marijuana, leading ultimately to fentanyl and cocaine.

“That’s what’s being trafficked back up through New Hampshire into Canada,” Cole said. “They pay these drug mules $20,000 to make that trip, so they don’t care if they get arrested, because they get knocked out of jail right away, because they have lawyers and everything. So, I want to get funds to secure our northern border. Let’s put a fence up there, get more agents patrolling that area.”

Cole said he supports is using an unarmed, retired U.S. Air Force drone to patrol, much like at the Mexican border.

Key issues

Cole supports the Trump administration’s handling of the war with Iran, saying they can absolutely not be permitted to have a nuclear weapon. He noted Iran has been the top state sponsor of terrorism for nearly 50 years, and this year alone, 52,000 citizens have been killed for protesting.

“That’s just a bad regime. So, I’m all for bombing them.”

Cole is a supporter of the efforts of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He said he doesn’t think it has been much of a major issue in New Hampshire, aside from the proposed facility in Merrimack, which was unsuccessful.

Two days before the interview, Joan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, originally from Colombia, was shot and killed in Maine, by an ICE agent.

Cole was unfamiliar with the details of this situation, but said he supports our country’s laws and the work of ICE, as they are removing illegal aliens who could be facing major charges.

“I’d rather have ICE in my backyard than a murderer, a rapist, a drug dealer, a pedophile,” Cole said. “So, I support ICE. ICE has been here right along anyways, it’s just only been an issue that’s come up in the last half year.”

As far as reproductive rights, Cole said he supports the Supreme Court’s decision to leave it up to the states.

“I will not vote on any abortion laws while in Washington; I am running on pro-life, though.”

Republican leadership

“Being in Concord, I can absolutely see that there is a disconnect between Concord and Washington,” Cole said. “Our whole Legislature here is Republican. We have a Republican governor, a supermajority in the Senate, we have a strong majority in the House, which is biennium. But all our delegation is Democratic. It just doesn’t make sense to me.”

Cole said with an open seat in the 1st Congressional District, currently held by Rep. Chris Pappas (D-NH), he sees a legitimate shot at flipping it to Republican.

“I would like to see New Hampshire have at least one congressman and one senator that’s Republican,” Cole said. “But right now, like I said, there’s a disconnect, and I don’t think they’re doing a lot of things for New Hampshire.”