On Nov. 5, Granite Staters will vote to elect the next governor of New Hampshire (former Gov. Chris Sununu said that he would not be running for re-election last July). On the 2024 ballot is Democratic candidate Joyce Craig, former Manchester mayor and the first woman to hold that position, and Kelly Ayotte, Republican candidate and former U.S. Senator and Attorney General.

Craig, who was born and raised in New Hampshire, and graduated from University of New Hampshire (UNH) in 1989, is running on the platform of creating affordable housing, protecting abortion rights, and tackling the homelessness crisis and opioid epidemic in the Granite State. As a former board member of the Manchester School District, she is also a staunch supporter of public education. 

Craig plans to support and expand abortion access and reproductive health care across the state by codifying access to abortion into law, which would guarantee the right to an abortion in New Hampshire, and by expanding New Hampshire’s Medicaid program to cover abortion costs. Currently, a pregnant person in New Hampshire can choose to have an abortion up to 24 weeks, with exceptions to the 6-month ban for dangerous conditions or a fatal fetal diagnosis.

Ayotte has stated that she also supports New Hampshire’s current abortion law and says that she would veto anything more restrictive, but Craig claims that Ayotte is untrustworthy, as Ayotte has voted several times to defund Planned Parenthood and cosponsored a 20-week abortion ban in the Senate in 2013. 

On the WMUR Granite State Debate, Craig enforced this. “We cannot trust Kelly Ayotte because her actions speak louder than her words,” she said.  

As governor, Craig said she will work with cities and towns to tackle the housing crisis and the rising cost of living through her Restoring the Dream Housing Plan, which would stop the downshifting costs from state to local communities and would increase funding for the Affordable Housing Fund so that the costs of homeownership and rent decrease. In the past six years serving as mayor, Craig had allocated $30 million to affordable housing needs and expanded rental housing for Manchester residents.

In a recent Saint Anselm College Survey Center poll, Ayotte has a 3-point lead (49%-46%) over Craig.