Kelly Ayotte

1 year as Governor in New Hampshire

Downloadable Report Card

Has Done Nothing About Trump's Tariffs while Everything is Getting More Expensive for Granite Staters
Supports Cutting Health Care for Granite Staters
Wants to Take Food from New Hampshire Families
Sent School Money to Private Schools and Left Property Taxpayers the Bill
Supports Trump's DOGE, and Democrats Say Her Own Version Protects Her Donors
Ran on Untraceable Money, Then Loosened the Disclosure Rules
Is Cooperating with Trump's Deportation Machine
Flip-Flopped on Abortion After a Career of Attacking It
Voted Against Gun Background Checks
Faces Accusations She Ignored Child Abuse at the Sununu Youth Development Center
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Sep 17, 2026

Kelly Ayotte Calls Her Opponent an 'Opioid Lobbyist.' She Vouched for the 'Character' of Purdue Pharma's Lawyer, Who Just Quit the Supreme Court Over Ethics Violations.

Governor Kelly Ayotte has built her reelection campaign around her opponent's old work for Purdue Pharma. In 2021 she personally urged the Executive Council to make Gordon MacDonald — who had fought New Hampshire's opioid investigation as Purdue's lawyer — chief justice, calling it 'about his character.' This week he resigned after admitting he broke the judicial ethics rules.

Corruption & Ethics Checks & Balances New Hampshire

Sep 16, 2026

Six Republicans Spent Years Fighting Abortion Rights. Now, With Their Names on the 2026 Ballot, They Say They Won't Touch Them.

Scott Perry cosponsored a national abortion ban five times, then told voters he doesn't support one. Rob Bresnahan swore off a federal abortion ban and voted for a federal abortion bill three months later. Darren Bailey, Stacy Garrity, Kelly Ayotte and Joe Lombardo all ran on ending or restricting abortion — and discovered moderation the year they needed votes.

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Aug 06, 2026

Kelly Ayotte Says She Disagrees With Trump's Canada Tariffs. She Wouldn't Sign the Letter New England's Other Governors Sent.

A 50% tariff on Canadian goods hits August 19, justified partly by Canada's 'protectionist dairy system.' Bohanan Farm in Hopkinton buys its grain and fertilizer from Canada. Kelly Ayotte says she disagrees with the tariffs — and has declined every chance to do something about them.

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Has Done Nothing About Trump's Tariffs while Everything is Getting More Expensive for Granite Staters

Trump's tariffs are hurting New Hampshire's businesses, raising grocery prices, and driving away Canadian tourists. Kelly Ayotte has refused to fight them.

In April 2025, Ayotte said Canada is New Hampshire's number two trading partner and that Trump's tariffs were "not helping" — but she has never criticized them outright. She opted not to sign the letter New England's other governors sent to Canada's eastern premiers calling to maintain close relations, and skipped their meeting with Canadian counterparts, sending a representative instead.
The cost landed on Granite Staters anyway. Canadian travel to New Hampshire is down about 30%, according to state officials, hitting tourism towns like North Conway. Her answer was a trade trip to Canada, telling Canadians beforehand that "we have open arms to them" — while leaving the tariffs that drove them away unchallenged. Grocery prices posted their biggest monthly jump since 2022 as the tariffs piled up. And New Hampshire employers got squeezed: the Douglas Company in Keene faced a 145% tax on every toy it imports from China, with its CEO saying the company had to "cut your overhead… do something to survive."

Kelly Ayotte stood by while Trump's tariffs hurt New Hampshire families and businesses. We deserve better.

Supports Cutting Health Care for Granite Staters

We all deserve access to quality, affordable health care. As Governor and as a U.S. Senator, Kelly Ayotte has repeatedly worked to take it away from Granite Staters.

Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill" is projected to cut 20,846 Granite Staters from Medicaid; counting those who lose Affordable Care Act coverage as well, 34,646 would lose their health insurance. Ayotte said there were "aspects of it, of course, that I disagree with" — but her administration set about implementing the changes rather than fighting them.
As Governor, Ayotte signed a budget adding Medicaid premiums of $90 a month for a household of three, plus a renewed push for a Medicaid work requirement. Her budget plan also raised pharmacy copays from $1–$2 to $4 for the lowest-income recipients — in a state where 168,682 people are on Medicaid or CHIP.
As a U.S. Senator, Ayotte said she was "absolutely" in favor of repealing the Affordable Care Act, voting for a 2015 budget bill to repeal it and a 2013 budget amendment setting aside room to repeal it. She backed the 2015 bill knowing it would end New Hampshire's Medicaid expansion after 2017. Today 66,024 Granite Staters buy coverage through the ACA marketplace.
Ayotte also voted for the FY2016 congressional budget plan, which called for cutting Medicare by $431 billion and Medicaid by about $500 billion over a decade. Twice — in 2011 and 2012 — she voted to take up Paul Ryan's budgets. The 2012 plan would have raised the Medicare eligibility age from 65 to 67, leaving 65- and 66-year-olds with no Medicare at all.

Kelly Ayotte has spent her career cutting the health care that Granite Staters depend on. We deserve better.

Wants to Take Food from New Hampshire Families

The food stamp program helps about 76,000 people in New Hampshire afford groceries. Kelly Ayotte has made it harder to get that help — both in Washington and as Governor.

Ayotte told the Executive Council "it looks like there's going to be reductions in SNAP" under Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill" — an estimated 15,000 Granite Staters could lose food assistance under the law's new 80-hour-a-month work requirement.
New Hampshire's interest and dividends tax — which had generated $184 million a year — was repealed effective January 2025, the month Ayotte took office. State Rep. Russell Muirhead said scrapping it "will make it very difficult for the state to pick up the $6 million in annual nutrition assistance costs that the federal government will not be covering." By October, state revenues were running $29.4 million behind plan, driven mainly by that repeal.
In the Senate, Ayotte voted to take up the 2011 Ryan budget, which would have cut SNAP by $127 billion — almost 20 percent — and converted it to a block grant, leaving the program unable to expand when need rises in a downturn.

Kelly Ayotte has consistently worked to take food assistance away from Granite Staters. We deserve better.

Sent School Money to Private Schools and Left Property Taxpayers the Bill

New Hampshire's cities, towns and school districts lean on property taxes more than local governments in any other state, and those taxes rose $1.52 billion from 2016 to 2025 before inflation, to $4.73 billion a year. Kelly Ayotte's answer was to send more of the state's education money to private schools.

On June 10, 2025, Ayotte signed a law removing the income limit on the state's school voucher program, the "Education Freedom Accounts." It had been open only to families earning under $112,525 for a family of four; now any family can get at least $4,265 per child for private school tuition or other expenses. The law went further than her own proposal, which would have lifted the income limit only for children coming from public schools. She signed it anyway, calling it "a very positive bill" and "fiscally responsible," and predicting it would cost about $86 million over two years.
New Hampshire voters never got a say, and where voters have, they've said no. Voucher expansions have never won when put to a public vote. In November 2024, Kentucky voters rejected one by roughly 65% to 35%, Nebraska voted to repeal its voucher program, and Colorado voted down a "right to school choice." Arizona voters rejected universal vouchers 65% to 35% in 2018, and four years later their governor and Legislature enacted them anyway.
The program hit its 10,000-student cap within a month, nearly doubling from 5,321, and the law automatically raises the cap to 12,500 next year. Nearly 90 percent of the students were already in religious or private schools or being homeschooled when they joined — so most of the money pays for schooling families had already chosen. Religious schools took in nearly 90% of voucher money spent on tuition in 2022-23, a Concord Monitor analysis found.
Much of the money is going to wealthier families. Only 15 percent of voucher students come from low-income families, compared with 24 percent of public school students. In Bedford, voucher students went from 39 to 152 in one year; in Windham, from 13 to 70; in Rye, from 1 to 20.
And it isn't buying a better education. Studies in four states found that students who used vouchers did worse academically than their peers.
It is already over budget. Lawmakers set aside $39 million for the first year; the families of the 10,000 students are receiving $48 million, and InDepthNH estimates the two years will cost about $108 million — not the $86 million Ayotte predicted. The money comes out of the Education Trust Fund, which also pays for public schools, and which budget writers expected to run dry in the 2026 budget year. "That means higher property tax for all of us while giving millions of dollars to wealthy families," said state Rep. David Luneau.
The budget Ayotte signed raises state aid to school districts by 2 percent a year — below inflation, and "local property taxpayers will continue to pick up most of that tab." Then, in July 2026, instead of paying more of that cost, she signed a law putting school spending caps on every town's November ballot. Local school board chairs said it sidesteps the costs the state has shifted onto towns — Keene's board had already cut $1.5 million to cover them — and would force cuts to programs and larger class sizes.

Kelly Ayotte opened private school vouchers to every family, including the wealthiest, while New Hampshire's public schools fall further behind and local property taxpayers cover the difference. We deserve better.

Supports Trump's DOGE, and Democrats Say Her Own Version Protects Her Donors

New Hampshire has about 8,700 civilian federal workers. Instead of defending their jobs and the services Granite Staters depend on, Ayotte backed DOGE and built her own version of it.

Ayotte was one of 26 Republican governors who signed a joint letter to congressional leaders backing Trump and Elon Musk's DOGE initiative. In her first executive order as Governor she created a New Hampshire copy — a 15-member Commission on Government Efficiency (COGE). The state Democratic Party chairman said the panel, which includes many people who donated to her gubernatorial campaign, is "rife with conflicts of interest."
Ayotte kept her commission running as federal DOGE cuts hit the agency Granite Staters depend on most. The Social Security Administration had already lost 7,000 jobs and faced thousands more cuts, its website kept crashing as DOGE demanded cuts to IT staff, and the agency stopped publicly reporting its call wait times and other performance metrics. 353,828 Granite Staters collect Social Security.

Kelly Ayotte sided with DOGE over New Hampshire's workers and seniors. We deserve better.

Ran on Untraceable Money, Then Loosened the Disclosure Rules

Our elected officials should work for us, the people.

Kelly Ayotte raised $21 million to become governor - more than any candidate in New Hampshire history, and more than twelve times what Chris Sununu spent winning re-election in 2022. Seventy percent of it came from a single political action committee, and none of those transactions can be traced to an individual donor.

Actual people giving actual money to Kelly Ayotte accounted for 18% of her campaign. Her opponent's individual donors were 65% of hers.

The Republican Governors Association - $14.7 million, routed through one PAC. The RGA put $21.3 million into an outfit called Live Free PAC. Every dollar Live Free PAC had came from the RGA. It then passed $14.7 million to Ayotte's campaign, usually in tranches of $1.5 million, and $6 million more to the state Republican party. A 2023 law slipped into the state budget lets "political advocacy organizations" hand unlimited money to candidates without ever naming who gave it to them. Democrats challenged the arrangement; the Attorney General's Election Law Unit ruled it legal.
Then she made the rest harder to see. In June 2026 Ayotte signed Senate Bill 405, raising the amount a donor can give while staying anonymous to $200, and raising to $1,000 the point at which a donor's employer must be disclosed. Most states cap anonymous giving at $20, $50 or $100. Rep. Connie Lane, who opposed it, wrote that the bill "reduces transparency at the same time it increases the amount of influence that a donor may provide unseen."
Her inaugural committee collected $529,868 - not campaign money, but corporate checks of $10,000 apiece to pay for the celebration of her taking office. Among them: Amazon, Sig Sauer the gunmaker, RAI Services - the corporate arm of R.J. Reynolds, maker of Camel and Newport - Eversource, Centene, the lottery contractor Scientific Games, the gaming and hospitality group Delaware North, the hospital chain HCA, Marriott and Bank of America.
DCD Automotive Holdings, trading as Nucar Dealerships - about $87,600, given through eight separate companies. New Hampshire caps any person or company at $15,000 per candidate. The dealership group gave $21,739 under its own name, $13,696 as the Nucar Preowned Superstore of Gorham, and $8,696 apiece from six more entities. The New Hampshire Bulletin has described exactly this technique: register multiple limited liability companies and give the maximum from each.
Centene twice - $5,000 to the campaign and $10,000 to the inauguration. The insurer holds one of the three contracts in New Hampshire's $1.1 billion Medicaid managed care program, covering roughly 190,000 Granite Staters, and AmeriHealth Caritas, which holds another, gave $5,000 as well.

The pattern did not stop at the money. Her first act as governor was a New Hampshire version of DOGE, and the commission was stocked with people who had donated to her campaign - "rife with conflicts of interest," the state Democratic Party said. See Supports Trump's DOGE, and Democrats Say Her Own Version Protects Her Donors above.

As Olivia Zink of Open Democracy put it when Ayotte's fundraising was revealed: "I think candidates need to answer who they're getting their campaign cash from. Voters are being flooded with ads, and if they're being paid for by nondisclosed, out-of-state donors, is that how they're going to run our state?"

Kelly Ayotte will not say who paid for her campaign, and this year she signed a law making it easier for the next donor to stay hidden. We deserve better.

Is Cooperating with Trump's Deportation Machine

In early 2026, the Trump administration moved to open a large ICE detention warehouse in Merrimack to speed up deportations. Kelly Ayotte was slow to protect the town — and her account of what she knew didn't hold up.

Ayotte said she received no documents about the proposed Merrimack facility until late on Feb. 12, 2026. But acting ICE Director Todd Lyons, questioned by Sen. Maggie Hassan, told a U.S. Senate committee that Ayotte's office had received a report on the project in "past weeks".
When DHS backed off the Merrimack site, Ayotte thanked Secretary Kristi Noem "for the continued cooperation between DHS and New Hampshire law enforcement". In Ayotte's own press release, Noem praised New Hampshire for "banning sanctuary cities" and called the state "a strong partner in securing our country."

Kelly Ayotte cooperated with Trump's deportation agenda and was slow to stand up for a New Hampshire town. We deserve better.

Flip-Flopped on Abortion After a Career of Attacking It

For nearly two decades — as New Hampshire Attorney General and as a U.S. Senator — Kelly Ayotte built one of the most anti-abortion records in the state. Then, the day she launched her run for governor, she suddenly said she wouldn't touch New Hampshire's abortion law. Granite Staters have to decide whether to trust a change of heart that arrived exactly when she needed one.

Ayotte's promise not to restrict abortion dates only to her 2023 campaign launch. Asked about it on WMUR, she said, "I've been very clear from the day I announced my candidacy that I would not change that law" — a reversal that came after two decades of opposing abortion rights.
As Governor she has so far kept that promise, telling lawmakers in her 2025 inaugural address that "if you send me legislation that further restricts access to abortion beyond our current law, I will veto it." But that pledge only preserves New Hampshire's existing 24-week ban — whose only exceptions are the life of the mother and fatal fetal anomalies, not rape or incest — and does nothing about the far broader restrictions she spent her career pushing.
As a senator, Ayotte was one of 40 cosponsors of the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, a federal ban on abortion after 20 weeks — earlier than New Hampshire's current law — and in 2015 voted to advance the House version of it.
Ayotte voted against an amendment by New Hampshire's other senator, Jeanne Shaheen, protecting women's access to family planning, birth control, and employer-provided contraceptive coverage under the Affordable Care Act. Planned Parenthood counts four votes to "defund" the organization and two more against restoring its funding.
As New Hampshire Attorney General, Ayotte personally argued Ayotte v. Planned Parenthood of Northern New England at the U.S. Supreme Court, where she "struggled to field sharp questions on why the state made an exception to allow abortions when a mother's life — but not her health — is in danger."
Her own 2010 campaign site boasted that "Kelly's unmatched record on life" had earned her the endorsements of the Susan B. Anthony List and New Hampshire Citizens for Life, the state chapter of National Right to Life.

Kelly Ayotte spent her career attacking reproductive freedom and disowned that record the moment it became inconvenient. Granite Staters deserve a governor they can trust. We deserve better.

Voted Against Gun Background Checks

81% of Americans favor requiring background checks on private gun sales and sales at gun shows. As a U.S. Senator, Kelly Ayotte voted against expanding them twice.

On April 17, 2013, four months after the Sandy Hook school shooting, Ayotte voted against the bipartisan Manchin-Toomey amendment, which would have expanded background checks to gun shows and internet sales. It failed 54–46, short of the 60 votes needed. New Hampshire's other senator, Jeanne Shaheen, voted for it.
On June 20, 2016, eight days after the Pulse nightclub shooting, Ayotte voted against a similar amendment covering gun shows, internet sales, and private transfers; it was defeated 44–56. PolitiFact rated it True that she voted against expanding background checks twice.

Kelly Ayotte repeatedly sided with the gun lobby over the safety of Granite Staters. We deserve better.

Faces Accusations She Ignored Child Abuse at the Sununu Youth Development Center

For decades, children in New Hampshire's custody at the Sununu Youth Development Center were beaten, raped, and burned with cigarettes. Kelly Ayotte was Attorney General from 2004 to 2009 — and survivors say the state's top law enforcement officer should have stopped it.

More than a thousand men and women say they were physically or sexually abused as children at the center between 1960 and 2019. Former residents describe being gang raped, choked, beaten unconscious, and burned with cigarettes. About 1,300 adults had come forward by 2024, but only 11 men had been arrested.
Ayotte has said through a spokesperson that she had no knowledge of the abuse. But a 2010 Disabilities Rights Center report found her office did have exposure to abuse allegations while she was in office: after a 2008 complaint that two employees used "unnecessary and excessive force" restraining a 14-year-old boy, an investigation by Ayotte's office found no wrongdoing — a conclusion the DRC challenged.
In 2023, survivors rallied at the State House demanding a federal investigation, displaying posters that named Ayotte alongside other state officials. In 2024, Republican candidates for governor and Executive Council accused her of either knowing about the abuse or being grossly negligent.

Kelly Ayotte failed to protect New Hampshire's most vulnerable children. We deserve better.

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