County bucks statewide voting trends, with notable exceptions

Voters in Laconia and Belknap County followed the track of voters statewide, with a few notable discrepancies. Laconia reported an exceptionally high turnout of 83% of registered voters on Tuesday. In Laconia Ward 3, voter behavior was contrary to the rest of the city, largely supporting Democratic candidates. 

Statewide, voters elected Republican former U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte as New Hampshire’s fourth female governor. Ayotte beat Joyce Craig, the former mayor of Manchester, by a margin of about 9 points. Late Tuesday night, Craig conceded the election to Ayotte, noting she first entered public service by running for school board.

“I’m proud of the race we ran focusing on these issues,” Craig wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “I called Kelly Ayotte and wished her luck in leading our great state.”

Laconia voters selected Ayotte by a margin of about 3,000 votes, and Belknap County supported Ayotte with 24,732 votes to the 14,762 received by Craig.

Republican incumbent Tim Lang held his seat in the state Senate, winning a decisive victory over Democratic challenger Carlos Cardona. Lang won Belknap and Grafton counties handily, but Cardona pulled an impressive 60% of Carroll County voters into his corner. The results of the entire district closely mirrored those in Belknap County, where Lang received 61% of the vote to the 39% received by Cardona. Overall in the district, Lang beat Cardona 58%-41%. 

The closest state race among Laconia voters was the contest for the 1st Congressional District, where Republican Russell Prescott of Exeter unsuccessfully challenged longtime Democrat incumbent Chris Pappas of Manchester.

Pappas won by a 9-point margin and Prescott conceded late Tuesday night, but in Laconia the race was decided by just 60 individual votes. Pappas received 4,694 votes through Laconia’s six wards to Prescott’s 4,634, but Prescott won the county overall. Belknap voters supported Pappas with 17,548 votes to the 19,977 received by Prescott. Across the entire 1st District, Pappas received 54% of the vote with 204,687 and Prescott received 46% with 172,780 votes.

Just before 10 p.m. Tuesday night, Prescott acknowledged the end of the race, writing on X he’d called Pappas and conceded.

“Thank you all for your support and your encouragement,” he wrote. “God Bless America and may God Bless you.”

Pappas thanked New Hampshire voters for sending him back to Congress.

“Thank you, New Hampshire!” he wrote. “I’m honored to have earned your support for another term in Congress to put New Hampshire first. Let’s get back to work.”

Just two Lakes Region towns, Center Harbor and New Hampton, participated in the election for the 2nd Congressional District. Libertarian-leaning Republican Lily Tang Williams of Weare lost by a wide margin to Democrat Maggie Goodlander. Goodlander, who owns a home in Portsmouth, rented an apartment in Nashua in order to run for Congress in the district. Voters in Center Harbor and New Hampton supported Tang Williams over Goodlander in each case.

For Executive Council in District 1, Republican incumbent Joe Kenney of Wakefield won reelection over Democrat Emmett Soldati of Somersworth. Kenney, who’s held the seat since 2021, campaigned broadly on his familiarity with the district, knowledge and experience in navigating state institutions, his relationships with state and municipal officials and his ability to provide constituent services.

But Soldati ran a spirited campaign, where he communicated his staunch support for women’s reproductive freedom, his disagreement with the Education Freedom Accounts voucher program under the state Department of Education, listening to the needs of constituents in individual towns and his desire to move New Hampshire forward through progressive economic and social policy. 

Kenney won the large district, which stretches all the way from Durham in the southeast, to Danbury in the west and north to Pittsburg, by a margin of about 9 points district-wide. Soldati received 64,296 votes to Kenney’s 77,499. Laconia residents supported Kenney 5,316 to 3,633, and Belknap voters writ-large supported Kenney by a margin of 21,990 votes to 13,446 for Soldati. Kenney retained his seat on the council, whose lone Democratic member is Cinde Warmington of Concord in District 2, a gubernatorial candidate defeated in the primary.

Vice President Kamala Harris, who lost the national election, beat former President Donald Trump in the statewide election by a margin of 3%, 390,949 to 367,857. In Belknap, voters supported Trump by about 5,000 votes, 22,765 to 17,469 for Harris. Voters in Laconia supported Trump by about 800 votes, 5,104 to 4,321.

In Laconia, voters supported Trump at just under 54% compared to about 45% for Harris, making for a much closer race than was observed between candidates for governor. 

Laconia Ward 3, whose voters use Laconia Middle School as their poll, was the only precinct in the city which supported Harris over Trump and proved a major outlier among the municipal electorate. Ward 3 voters supported Harris 854 to 665. Ward 3 also supported Craig, Cardona and Soldati over Ayotte, Lang and Kenney in the gubernatorial, state Senate and Executive Council races, respectively.

More broadly, Lakes Region municipalities generally supported Trump at higher rates. That contest was closest in Meredith, Gilford and in Center Harbor, where voters were split on support for Harris and Trump. Gilford voters supported Harris at just over 47% and Trump at just under 53%. Center Harbor voters supported Harris at 48% to Trump’s 51%. In Meredith, voters supported Harris with 49% of the vote and Trump with 51%. 

And a ballot measure that would change the state constitution to maintain the retirement age for sheriffs at 70 and would raise the age of retirement for judges from 70 to 75 received immense support from Belknap County voters, and appeared to be popular statewide, but hadn’t reached the threshold of two-thirds by deadline on Wednesday afternoon.

With 91% reporting, the ballot measure has garnered 65.4% of votes statewide, just shy of the threshold for adoption. Belknap County voters affirmed the ballot measure with 22,529 votes in support to 11,943 opposed. Voters in Laconia supported the ballot measure with 5,095 votes for and 2,905 votes against.

Despite the Granite State trending further leftward in state and federal elections, Belknap County remained a Republican stronghold in the 2024 cycle. Laconia Ward 3 bucked the county trend, creating a “blue bubble” and proving a statistical outlier more in line with statewide voting trends. A high degree of voter turnout coupled with large numbers of new voters registering at the polls made for busy precincts throughout the city. 

The total number of voters statewide was not immediately available, but New Hampshire Secretary of State David Scanlan predicted last week that a record 824,000 voters would show up to the polls.

Laconia Ward 3 is one of eight towns and city wards throughout the state selected to be randomly audited by the Secretary of State's Office. The audit was scheduled for Thursday at 8 a.m., the only Lakes Region precinct to be included in the audit. Moderators were apparently notified following the closure of the polls on Tuesday, and one machine will be included in the process. A full report on the audits will be available on Friday, Nov. 8.