The victory was a rare bright spot for Republicans on an Election Day that brought big Democratic wins up and down the New Hampshire ballot. Speaking to supporters at Tuscan Village in Salem shortly before midnight, with returns showing a narrow lead, Ayotte urged patience. "We are going to wait for every single vote to be counted tonight, but I want you to know that we are very very optimistic about the result and where things stand," she said. "But I feel very strongly that it's important we have every vote come in before we make a final conclusion here."
Ayotte, who spent five years as New Hampshire's attorney general, enters a second term after a first two years marked by a focus on public safety. She overhauled the state's bail law, pushed for stricter penalties for driving while intoxicated, appointed former law enforcement officers to top posts and threatened to veto the state budget unless it restored the pensions of law enforcement retirees whose benefits had been cut more than a decade ago. She signed bills barring cities and towns from adopting sanctuary policies for undocumented immigrants and requiring local police to cooperate with federal immigration authorities. At the same time, she worked to keep her distance from the Trump administration and presented herself as a governor committed to low taxes and welcoming out-of-state visitors.
She also oversaw sweeping changes to education policy, backing the expansion of the voucher-like Education Freedom Accounts and supporting the overturn of a landmark state Supreme Court ruling on the Legislature's obligation to provide "adequate" funding for public education.
On the campaign trail, Ayotte called housing the state's top economic issue, pointing to legislation easing zoning restrictions and encouraging new home construction, and her directive to state departments to speed up housing permit processing. She also touted a tax credit encouraging businesses to offer childcare on their premises and the expansion of eligibility for the Childcare Scholarship Fund. "I'm going to continue to prioritize those scholarships because I've met so many families that are using them," she said of the next budget cycle.
Warmington hammered Ayotte over the cost of living, arguing that people in New Hampshire are "getting screwed and Kelly Ayotte is holding the screwdriver." "This economy is simply and fundamentally broken, and we need to fix it," she said at a candidate forum last month. "And that means investing in housing and in child care, and making sure we're protecting our public schools and our public education. We have a real choice in this election. We can't afford two more years of the Kelly Ayotte-Trump agenda." She also argued that state decisions on education and health care under Ayotte shifted costs to municipalities and local taxpayers. Asked about high property taxes at the same forum, Ayotte backed letting voters decide whether to cap school tax increases, and vowed to protect the "New Hampshire Advantage" by rejecting any proposed income or sales tax, which she said Warmington would implement. Warmington insisted that would not be the case.
At Ayotte's election night party, Kyle Simpson, whose young son died in an accident with a distracted driver, said the governor had appointed him to the state's traffic safety commission. "She speaks her mind and she definitely goes out there and fights for what she says she believes in," he said.
Ayotte enters her second term facing a series of challenges. The economy may be first and foremost, and the state budget will also be an early priority. Funding for public higher education may be a rough patch, as it has been a point of friction between Ayotte and top lawmakers in her own party. She also has key administrative decisions to make, including appointing a new chief justice of the state Supreme Court after former Chief Justice Gordon MacDonald stepped down in September amid an ethics investigation. Other looming management challenges include turmoil at the Sununu Youth Services Center, the state's scandal-plagued youth detention facility. Her ability to achieve sweeping changes in her second term will likely be more limited than in her first: with final results in legislative races unclear early Wednesday, Democrats appeared poised to gain seats in the state Senate, House and Executive Council, perhaps even majorities, which would severely curtail her ability to achieve legislative priorities or appoint nominees who cannot win Democratic support.