New Hampshire Gov. Maggie Hassan to Run for US Senate
CONCORD, N.H. — Democratic New Hampshire Gov. Maggie Hassan announced Monday she would challenge Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte, setting the stage for a highly competitive race that will be critical in determining majority control of the Senate in the next president's first year.
Hassan, who made her announcement in an online video, said she's running to bring a bipartisan, common-sense governing approach to Washington that mirrors that of New Hampshire. She said Washington has given in to powerful special interests and lobbyists who rig the system against the middle class.
As evidence of dysfunction in Washington, she pointed to Republican efforts to end the president's health care law, which would jeopardize Medicaid expansion, and the fact that people can't refinance their student loans.
"The people of New Hampshire deserve better, and in order for us to make progress, we need to have the kind of bipartisan, problem-solving, results-driven approach that I've led here," Hassan told The Associated Press.
Hassan, a two-term governor, has long been considered Democrats' best chance of beating Ayotte, a former attorney general who won her seat during the 2010 Republican wave election. Democratic voter turnout spikes in New Hampshire in presidential years, handing the party a win here in 2008 and 2012. Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton, the party's front-runner for the presidential nomination, won the 2008 primary and has long been popular in the state, marking another potential hurdle for Ayotte.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2015/10/05/us/ap-us-senate-2016-hassan.html?_r=0
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