What happened in New Hampshire?

[moose65]

Disclosure: I’ve been to NH on vacation in the fall numerous times, but I really don’t know much about politics there, except they have one of the early primaries and they kinda pride themselves on being politically active.

It seems so crazy to me that Biden won NH by almost 60,000 votes, and Jean Shaheen won her reelection by 125,000. They also re-elected their 2 Dem house representatives. So far, so good. How then did NH vote to flip both their massive state House and their small state Senate from Dem to Republican control in a census year with state-level redistricting at stake?

Seriously, I am trying to understand that. On the surface it makes no sense.

[SomedayKindaLove]

1. They love their Sheehan in NH

[sweetloukillbot]

2. Libertarian state

[moose65]

5. Not really

They seem to love sending Democrats to DC, but they have a secret affair with Republicans at home!

[Dem2]

6. Nah, that was a failed experiment in the 80's

It's a blue state now.

[Celerity]

9. I am wary of the vermin Sununu or maybe Ayotte against Hassan in 2022 (mid-terms for 1st term POTUS)

[Dem2]

11. I am too.

The tradition of a governor term-limiting out and running for Senate is a tradition here.

[former9thward]

13. A blue state with a red state legislature?

Ok...

[moose65]

16. Makes no sense

Their state House has like 400 members for a state population of 1.4 million, so it’s subject to wild swings. The senate is tiny by comparison: 24 members.

[Dem2]

17. It was blue until 2 days ago

It was Republican for like 100 years, so there's still lots of old-school Republicans here. Several blue states have Republican legislatures.

I don't understand local politics that well, and I wasn't raised here.

[Celerity]

18. New England is the only US region that is remotely like anything in the EU. The far NW

(only the parts centred on the Pacific coast) of the US would be 2nd. Parts of Southern and Northern California 3rd. SOME parts of NYC 4th. Nothing else is very comparable.

[OAITW r.2.0]

7. Well, in theory anyway. Reality, not so much.

I getting this book- "A Libertarian Walks into a Bear"

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50358538-a-libertarian-walks-into-a-bear

[OAITW r.2.0]

3. NH ihas been trending blue for awhile. Lots of people live in NH and work in MA and ME.

The days of rock ribbed Yankee Republicans are a thing of the past.

[PatSeg]

4. I live in New Hampshire

and honestly, I don't understand it either. Chris Sununu was reelected as governor as well and he openly bragged about being a Trump guy.

I've only been in New Hampshire for ten years, so I still don't get their politics. Our former governor Maggie Hassan is now our junior senator, so both our senators are Democratic women. I don't understand how Sununu got such a huge win. The best I can guess is the political ads against the Dems had to do with tax threats (sales tax or income tax).

[moose65]

8. Same old thing, huh?

Doesn’t matter which state. Republicans always try to scare people with the old “Dems will raise your taxes.”

I know NH has no general sales or income taxes. Property tax there must be massive.

[PatSeg]

10. It is a huge deal here

Republicans keep trying to spook people about Democrats trying to make New Hampshire more like Massachusetts, with all their high taxes and eek, socialism. Of the ads I've seen on Facebook, they used these arguments against some Democratic candidates. The problem is that if you're not paying sales tax or income tax, you're being taxed somewhere else in the form of fees and property tax, but so many can't see that.

They would rather "Live free or die, than pay a damn sales tax"!

[Dem2]

12. It's a guaranteed loss

Not sure why any Democrat would venture into such a place if they want to win.

[PatSeg]

15. For the most part

they seem to like their Democratic governors. Shaheen was elected governor three times and senator twice. Maggie Hassan was elected governor twice and went on to become a senator. John Lynch was governor for four terms.

Democrats can do very well here, but there is an odd mix of republicans, Libertarians, and Democrats.

[Marius25]

14. Property taxes there are obscene.

My parents are considering retiring there, and in a lot of districts, a $500,000 house is like $13,000 in property taxes.