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Omaha Steve

(99,060 posts)
Thu Nov 8, 2018, 01:58 PM Nov 2018

Largest slate of young candidates since the 70's elected to New Hampshire's House of Representatives


I have permission from DUer Matt Murray (NH Labor News ) to post the full article

Manchester, NH– Last night, a slate of 36 diverse, passionate New Hampshire Young Democrats from across the state were elected to represent their communities in New Hampshire’s upper and lower chambers– nearly 3 times more young Democrats than the previous session. Furthermore, 22 first time candidate won their election last night and we saw 14 red to blue flips. This injection of young leadership into the State House is a message that we can no longer delay on passing meaningful legislation critical to young people such as lowering the cost of education and developing a clean energy economy. This group of young leaders will be at the forefront of these policy debates, standing up for equality and decency, and ensuring the voices of the younger generations is heard.

The New Hampshire Young Democrats issued the following statement:

“Youth power is growing in New Hampshire. By electing young, next generation leaders, we can take meaningful steps this coming session to create the change young people are looking for. This election saw huge numbers of young people stepping up, organizing and getting ready to lead our state into a more modern, equitable, and just state,” said NHYD President Lucas Meyer. “It is our hope that we can begin to foster and pass not only policies important to young people, but also begin to remove the barriers for young people to serve in our legislature so we can work to create a true representative government that includes our generations’ voices. Conservative lawmakers wonder why it is difficult to attract and retain young people while they force students to pay the highest tuition rates in the country, ignore social, racial, and criminal injustices across our state, and continue to push their annual threats to a women's right to make her own health care decisions.

The work to make sure our state is heading in the right direction is never done. Today we applaud the passion of all young candidates running across the state and thank them for running. This is just a starting point. We are committed to ensuring that the policies these candidates ran on, which are the issues most important to young people, translate into top priorities for the upcoming 2019 session," Meyer concluded.

The New Hampshire Young Democrats (NHYD) are the only statewide group recruiting, training, and electing the next generation of progressive leaders. NHYD provided professional advising, hands on trainings, and resources to candidates running in elections through our 603-Forward Program. This year, 70 Young Democrats launched campaigns at the federal, state, and county levels- as compared to 22 in 2016- and 54 candidates made it through the primary election in September.

Across the state, NHYD organized 25 'Days of Action' in the top competitive districts including Hillsborough, Grafton, Strafford, Rockingham, Carroll, Merrimack, and Cheshire Counties. By election day, 325 volunteers knocked over 10,000 doors and had thousands of conversations with voters.

Additionally, NHYD invested unprecedented amounts of resources into races in the form of candidate advising, mail, and digital advertising to turn out voters.

“The Democratic Party is clearly hungry for younger leadership,” said NHYD 603-Forward Program Director Theo Groh. “New Hampshire cities and towns have long struggled to figure out how to attract young families and keep young people in their communities. Who could know more about how do that then this incredibly hardworking group of young leaders? We are so proud as an organization to have been be able to develop the infrastructure to help these great candidates run."

Winning Candidates:

*: First time candidate

~: Red to blue flip

State Senate:

*~Jon Morgan- District 23

Jon Morgan was raised in New Hampshire and is a cybersecurity professional with a background in international business development. He currently serves on the Planning Board in Brentwood, where he lives with his wife of eight years, Katie, and their three young sons. Jon’s priorities include opposing voter suppression, passing paid family & medical leave insurance, fighting school privatization, and correcting NH’s neglect of its public university system.

Dan Feltes - District 15

A former legal aid lawyer, Dan won reelection to the NH Senate. A believer in bipartisan solutions, Dan has worked to battle the opioid crisis, help provide affordable housing, and reauthorized Medicaid for 50,000 Granite Staters. Moving forward, Senator Feltes wants to raise the minimum wage and pass paid family and medical leave.

County Attorney:

*~Michael Conlon - Hillsborough County Attorney (final results pending)

Michael is a regulatory compliance professional who ran because he saw a clear need for change in the Hillsborough County Attorney's office and is looking forward to bringing new transparency and solutions to the opioid epidemic and domestic violence.

State House:

Hillsborough County:

*~Cole Riel Hillsborough-06: Cole is a UNH graduate and the Vice Chairman of the Goffstown Budget Committee. Cole's priorities in the House will be to provide affordable healthcare, public education, and to attract and retain young people in NH.

*Israel "Iz" Piedra Hillsborough-09: After graduating law school, Iz returned to New Hampshire to open his civil litigation practice. He believes strongly that young people will come to and stay in New Hampshire if there are good jobs, affordable housing & public schools.

*Nicole Klein Hillsborough-11: Nicole is an artist focused on protecting women’s access health care, reproductive rights, and improving representation in the State House.

Amanda Bouldin Hillsborough-12: Amanda is a second term rep who hopes to protect healthcare, focus on mental health to improve the opioid crisis, and protect LGBTQIA and voting rights.

*~Andrew Bouldin Hillsborough-12: Andrew is a second term rep who serves to expand access to healthcare including reproductive care and addiction treatment, raise the minimum wage increase, support clean and efficient energy, and protect access to quality public education for all students.

Erika Connors Hillsborough-15: Erika is an incumbent Representative and former member of the Manchester School Board and the owner and director of Melody Pines Day camp. She plans on protecting public school funding, expanding medicaid and Planned Parenthood funding.

*~Joshua Query Hillsborough-16: A graduate of the NH Institute of Art, current art instructor, and longtime activist, Josh cares about protecting LBGTQIA rights, voting rights, and increasing the amount of young people in New Hampshire.

*~Willis T. Griffith Hillsborough-18: Willis is an Academic Support Teacher and the Head Coach of the men's varsity soccer team at New Hampton School. Willis's priorities are public education funding, paid family leave, affordable housing and healthcare.

Tim Smith Hillsborough-17: Tim Smith is a third term who is a passionate social justice advocate.

*Megan Murray Hillsborough-22: Megan is a former public school teacher whose priority is to make New Hampshire an affordable state for working families, with strong schools and health care available for all.

*Manny Espitia Hillsborough-31: Manny is a passionate advocate for progressive values who ingrained himself into his district when he moved here in 2015. In the State House he will work to raise the minimum wage, provide paid family leave, and build commuter rail.

Allison Nutting-Wong Hillsborough-32: Allison Nutting Wong will be serving her third term in the New Hampshire House. She works at a family owned and operated shop in Nashua. She is passionate about women’s access to health care, the rights of workers and encouraging small business entrepreneurship.

*~Greg Indruk Hillsborough-34: Greg is a lifelong Granite Stater, homeowner, and business owner. He supports strong public education, universal healthcare, and making NH a welcoming state for people of all backgrounds.

*Matt Wilhelm Hillsborough-42: Matt has been dedicated to service since he graduated college and came to New Hampshire to work in the Manchester public schools as an Americorps member. He wants to serve his community in the State House by fighting for public education, restoring the integrity of our elections, and making policy decisions based on science.

*Dr. Jacqueline Chretien Hillsborough-42: Jackie is a PhD scientist and mother of three. She plans on making higher education more accessible with student loan reform, supporting paid family leave, and a strong public school system.

Merrimack County:

*Safiya Wazir - Merrimack 17: Safiya is the first refugee from Afghanistan to serve in the State House. She’s a member of the Board of Directors for Community Action Program of Belknap-Merrimack Counties and will be a proud advocate for her community.

*~Sam Fox - Merrimack 23: Samantha is a lifelong resident of New Hampshire, mother, homeowner and experienced entrepreneur who is committed to fighting voter suppression, strengthening public schools, and advocating for women's reproductive rights.

*Ryan Buchanan Merrimack-15: Ryan is a veteran and plans to improve veteran care and tackle the opioid crisis. He hopes to preserve quality public education for his two children, and all of New Hampshire.

*Rebecca McWilliams Merrimack-27: Rebecca is a small business owner, mother, and attorney. Her family owns Lewis Farm and she runs an architecture firm focused on revitalizing historic buildings in Concord.

Rockingham County:

Ellen Read Rockingham-17: Rep. Read is an incumbent Representative. She is a UNH graduate and current grassroots activist who is passionate about accountability of our elected officials by putting the power back into the hands of the people.

*~Tom Loughman Rockingham-21: A Keene graduate, Tom now works as an environmental engineer and a recent recipient of the Union Leader "40 under 40" award. Tom wants to strengthen public education, secure Hampton's fair share of tourism tax revenue, and pass paid family medical leave insurance.

Strafford County:

*Cassandra Levesque Strafford-04: Cassandra is a college student and an advocate for public education and keeping younger families in New Hampshire. She gained international headlines when she led the fight in 2017 and 2018 to help end child marriage in New Hampshire.

*Cam Kenney - Strafford-06: Cam is a UNH graduate who is passionate about expanding voting rights, affordable college tuition, and advocating for renewable energy.

Casey Conley - Strafford-13: Casey is an incumbent Representative, father and husband who understands how expensive quality childcare can be. In order to help this issue, he wants to implement paid family leave, raise the minimum wage for families to stay in Dover and support their children, and preserve public schools.

Amanda Gorgue Strafford-25: Amanda is an incumbent State Representative. She was born and raised in New Hampshire and has lived in Lee for over 30 years and is a graduate of the Oyster River school system. She is currently the owner of Meeting Revolution, a sustainable events and non-profit management consulting firm and serves as director of Seacoast Main Street, preservation-based economic development and community revitalization non-profit.

Cheshire County:

Donovan Fenton Cheshire-08: Donovan lives in his hometown of Keene with his wife and baby on the way. He is concerned about the appalling lack of funding for mental health organizations, the high cost of education in the state, and affordable housing.

Will Pearson Cheshire-16: Will is a UNH Law student serving his third term in the NH House of Representatives. A member of the Election Law Committee, Will is passionate about voting rights, and engaged in issues related to the environment, protecting labor laws in New Hampshire, and child abuse and neglect.

Grafton County:

Tim Josephson Grafton-11: Rep. Josephson is an incumbent Representative who lives is Canaan with his wife and two daughters.He serves as vice-chair on the Mascoma Valley Regional School Board.

*Garrett Muscatel Grafton-12: Garrett is an upperclassman at Dartmouth College where he is double majoring in government and economics. Garrett plans to champion voting rights bills, reform our healthcare system, and protect minority groups from discrimination.

*~Denny Ruprecht Grafton-15: Denny, a recent graduate of Woodsville High School, has roots in the North Country that go back multiple generations. He is passionate about restoring vitality to the region with job development and support for public education.

~Joshua Adjutant Grafton-17: Josh is a Marine veteran who made his first political break in high school when he became the first student to serve on the Newfound Regional School Board.

Carroll County:

*~Harrison Kanzler Carroll-02: Harrison lives with his wife and their first child in Conway. A former school teacher, he now works in real estate. He is passionate about attracting young families to the region.

NH Labor News | November 7, 2018 at 17:46 | URL: https://wp.me/p2yHP6-imG
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Largest slate of young candidates since the 70's elected to New Hampshire's House of Representatives (Original Post) Omaha Steve Nov 2018 OP
I hereby grant my Boomer credentials to the Mlllennials and Gen Xers. libdem4life Nov 2018 #1
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