New Hampshire, a perennial swing state with outsized influence on American politics, will choose a new secretary of state on Dec. 7—and we need your help to ensure the right candidate, Democrat Melanie Levesque, wins.
Granite State Republicans have spent years cracking down on voting rights, most notoriously passing a bill that would have made it much harder for college students to vote. The law was eventually struck down by the state Supreme Court, but that hasn’t deterred the GOP in the slightest. Just last year, in devious fashion, they passed another measure to try to thwart any efforts by Congress to expand voting rights. This bill would create two separate systems for election administration, one for federal races and one for state and local contests—the latter of which would escape congressional oversight.
And all along, they’ve been abetted by the secretary of state’s office. That position is now held by Republican David Scanlan, who’s fully on board with the GOP voter suppression agenda. Enough is enough.
Levesque would represent an enormous change. Not only did she previously chair the Election Law Committee in the state Senate, but she’d also be the first woman and the first Black person to hold this post. “Over the past decade in New Hampshire, our sacred right—the right to vote—has been under attack,” she said in launching her campaign. “New Hampshire has become home to some of the most aggressive attacks on our democracy. I am proud to be running for secretary of state to protect our voters from these attacks and make critical reforms to this office to better serve Granite Staters.”
New Hampshire may be small, but it can have a huge impact. In 2000, had Al Gore not lost the state by a single point, he’d have won the presidency—without Florida. And in 2016, Democrat Maggie Hassan unseated the incumbent Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte by just 1,000 votes. That narrow victory would prove crucial in allowing Democrats to win back the Senate just a few years later. With the stakes so high, New Hampshire needs a secretary of state who will make sure as many eligible voters as possible participate.
Unfortunately, ordinary citizens won’t get to vote on this race directly. Instead, both chambers of the legislature—24 senators and 400 members of the House—will collectively select the next secretary of state. The split between the two parties is extremely close: At the moment, there are 215 Republicans to 208 Democrats, with one seat vacant. Absences are common, and crossing the aisle is by no means unheard of. With your encouragement, Levesque can win.
That’s why we’re asking New Hampshire residents to contact their lawmakers in both the Senate and the House to urge them to support Melanie Levesque when the legislature convenes on Dec. 7. We’ve seen how important it is to have fair-minded administrators who will safeguard our democracy running our elections nationwide. New Hampshire deserves no less.
P.S. Don’t live in New Hampshire but want to elect more Democrats? Click here to help get out the vote in the Georgia runoff!
