A Republican gubernatorial candidate in New Hampshire is running away from her longtime opposition to abortion, in the latest test of Republicans’ ability to distance themselves from the unpopular policy in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to eliminate the constitutional right to an abortion.
As a U.S. senator and in the years after she left elected office, Kelly Ayotte was consistently involved with efforts to limit reproductive autonomy. But in her race against Democrat Joyce Craig, the former mayor of Manchester, Ayotte has tried to assure voters that she wouldn’t impose additional abortion restrictions in the Granite State, though she’s stopped short of disavowing her previous positions. The state currently bans abortions after 24 weeks, with limited exceptions.
Craig and her supporters have made abortion a central issue in the race, while Ayotte has slammed Democrats for “politicizing abortion to win votes.” The two are facing off in a tight race that the Cook Political Report has described as the only “toss-up” governor’s race this year. Neither Ayotte’s campaign nor Craig’s campaign responded to a request for comment.
Ayotte is far from the only Republican candidate who’s attempted to distance herself from opposition to abortion. Vice presidential nominee and Ohio Republican Sen. JD Vance was caught earlier this year wiping anti-abortion messages from his website. And in some congressional races this cycle, Republicans have attempted to rebrand as “pro-choice,” despite their records to the contrary. GOP candidates are seemingly looking to avoid a repeat of the 2022 midterm elections, when Democrats successfully tied their Republican opponents to the deeply unpopular Dobbs decision, which came down in June of that year.
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“New Hampshire voters overwhelmingly support abortion access,” said Kayla Montgomery, vice president of public affairs for Planned Parenthood New Hampshire Action Fund, which has endorsed Craig. “So Kelly is trying to rebuild her record on this. And at the end of the day, I don’t think voters are going to be fooled because she has a long record of being anti-abortion.”
No Constituency for Abortion Opposition
A year before Dobbs, New Hampshire’s Republican Gov. Chris Sununu signed into law a 24-week abortion ban — which includes exceptions for fatal fetal diagnoses and to save the life of the pregnant person — along with additional restrictions, including a mandatory ultrasound for anyone seeking an abortion. The measures “hugely backfired” for Republicans, said Linda Fowler, a government professor at Dartmouth University. Last year, lawmakers repealed the ultrasound mandate.
Though New Hampshire’s abortion law is far less restrictive than those of many Southern states, Democrats have noted that it’s out of step with the rest of New England. Neighboring states have all codified a guaranteed right to abortion and pro-actively expanded access to abortion care.
Anti-abortion politics have never been particularly popular in the Granite State, said Fowler. “There’s not much of a constituency for it,” she said.
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Craig has vowed to codify abortion rights and to repeal the existing restrictions past 24 weeks. In a platform promise to “champion women’s health,” Ayotte, meanwhile, said she supports the state’s current law and would not change it.
She has emphasized that message in a series of campaign ads. In one ad, Ayotte, who was endorsed by the current Republican governor, argues that Democrats are lying about the state’s abortion ban and that women in New Hampshire have the right to choose. In the same ad, she says that she would “veto” any law that was more “restrictive” than the current abortion ban. However, in a later debate, she refused to answer whether she would support criminal or civil penalties for abortion providers after 24 weeks.
Ayotte, who as a senator supported a measure that state Democrats argue would have allowed employers and insurers to deny coverage for in vitro fertilization, has proactively affirmed her support for the treatment. In another advertisement, the former senator discusses finding out during one of her pregnancies that her fetus wasn’t viable and argues that because she’s experienced loss, she would never outlaw treatments like IVF.
A Clear Record
Democrats and their allies, meanwhile, have been encouraging voters to look at Ayotte’s relatively recent record on reproductive rights.
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“Ayotte is purposely rewriting her record on abortion and is, at times, outright lying to Granite Staters about what she would do as Governor of New Hampshire. The reality is that she cannot be trusted to protect reproductive rights in New Hampshire,” wrote the state Democratic Party in a memo outlining Ayotte’s abortion record.
As a senator, Ayotte received a 100 percent rating from the National Right to Life Committee, the largest and oldest anti-abortion organization in the United States, and an A+ rating from Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, a large anti-abortion lobbying group.
In 2014, Ayotte was one of four senators who led the charge to implement a national abortion ban. Ayotte also voted for the controversial Blunt Amendment, which would have weakened the Affordable Care Act’s birth control mandate. And she repeatedly voted to defund Planned Parenthood. Ayotte also served as one of the senators who shepherded Neil Gorsuch through his Supreme Court confirmation process, a crucial vote for overturning Roe v. Wade.
Ayotte lost her reelection bid in 2016 and continued her anti-abortion advocacy outside the Senate.
In 2017, Ayotte reportedly helped found Winning for Women, a political action committee pitched as a counter to EMILY’s List, a liberal group that backs “pro-choice” Democrats. She served on Winning for Women’s board and was listed on its website as recently as 2023, but her name was removed by February 2024, according to a review of internet archives.
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Winning for Women poured over $8.3 million into backing dozens of candidates with anti-abortion records during Ayotte’s tenure, according to local reporting. And on the same day the Supreme Court released its Dobbs decision, the organization reportedly launched a joint fundraising committee for six candidates who had previously supported overturning Roe v. Wade. The group has supported a variety of hard-line anti-abortion candidates, including Reps. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., and Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., and former Sen. Kelly Loeffler, R-Georgia.
Ayotte hasn’t explicitly changed her position on abortion — and that may prove to be a political liability, said Fowler, the Dartmouth professor. “She hasn’t said I’ve changed my mind about being pro-choice. She hasn’t had a Liz Cheney, you know, ‘The anti-abortion movement has gone too far’ kind of moment,” Fowler said. “She’s basically tried to say she won’t change the law and put it behind her. And so it becomes a basis for the Craig campaign to say, “You can’t trust her on this issue,” and anecdotally, when you talk to women about it, that resonates with them.”
The New Hampshire Lottery offers several draw games for those aiming to win big.
Here’s a look at Sunday, June 7, 2026 results for each game:
Winning Pick 3 numbers from June 7 drawing
Day: 5-0-8
Evening: 9-7-7
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Check Pick 3 payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Pick 4 numbers from June 7 drawing
Day: 6-9-8-0
Evening: 6-8-8-5
Check Pick 4 payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Millionaire for Life numbers from June 7 drawing
02-18-29-32-51, Bonus: 02
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Check Millionaire for Life payouts and previous drawings here.
Feeling lucky? Explore the latest lottery news & results
When are the New Hampshire Lottery drawings held?
Powerball: 10:59 p.m. Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday.
Pick 3, 4: 1:10 p.m. and 6:55 p.m. daily.
Mega Millions: 11:00 p.m. Tuesday and Friday.
Megabucks Plus: 7:59 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.
Lucky for Life: 10:38 p.m. daily.
Gimme 5: 6:55 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Millionaire for Life: 11:15 p.m. daily.
This results page was generated automatically using information from TinBu and a template written and reviewed by a New Hampshire managing editor. You can send feedback using this form.
NASHUA, N.H (WHDH) – A person was rushed to the hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries after a multi-vehicle crash in Nashua, New Hampshire, on Sunday.
Crews responding to a reported crash at the intersection of Amherst Street and Airport Road around 10:45 a.m. found a two-vehicle crash with one vehicle rolled over and an injured occupant inside, according to the Nashua Fire Department.
The injured person was taken to the hospital.
The cause of the crash remains under investigation.
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(Copyright (c) 2026 Sunbeam Television. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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“This process takes our product to a whole different level,” said Zydenbos. And, she said, it tastes delicious.
Vermont has the highest percentage of local food sales in the region (10.7 percent), followed by Maine (4.9 percent), with New Hampshire coming in third (4.6 percent), according to 2024 data from New England Feeding New England, a partnership of New England organizations advocating that the region produce 30 percent of the food it consumes by 2030. Massachusetts comes in fourth, with 3.6 percent of food spending on local items.
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Stephanie Zydenbos, founder and CEO of Micro Mama’s, right, and her sister, COO Samantha Cleveland, chat in their Weare, N.H. workshop.Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff
New Hampshire is second to last in New England when it comes to the value of vegetable sales ($23 million) and the value of agriculture ($209 million). Many farmers in the state struggle to turn a profit.
“Generally speaking, New Hampshire is a little bit behind,” said Shawn Menard, executive director of Seacoast Eat Local, a local food nonprofit, and board president at the Concord Food Co-op. Menard said other New England states have more robust infrastructure for food processing, purchasing, and distribution that supports local food production.
Since 2012, Zydenbos has operated Micro Mama’s, one of New Hampshire’s first fermented vegetable companies, sourcing local produce and transforming it into fermented vegetables sold at more than 50 locations around New England, including about 30 Whole Foods stores.
The Silly Dilly Carrot Prebiotic & Probiotic Fermented Vegetables, left, will become Micro Mama’s first fermented freeze-dried blend, according to Stephanie Zydenbos.Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff
Now, Zydenbos wants to try something new, by making more processing equipment available for farmers and producers in New Hampshire and using it to introduce novel local food products. Among them: freeze-dried kimchi, a new take on a traditional Korean dish made with spicy fermented vegetables like napa cabbage and radishes.
With a $96,000 federal grant from the US Department of Agriculture in hand, she purchased new equipment, including an individual quick freezer and a freeze dryer. Food experts said the cost of the equipment is one barrier that’s prevented other small local businesses from offering similar products.
Jennifer Chadbourne, a clinical associate professor in agriculture, nutrition, and food systems at the University of New Hampshire, said freeze-dried kimchi is not widely available.
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“It could be a really novel idea for the manufacturer,” she said.
Traditional kimchi and other fermented vegetables offer certain health benefits, like probiotics that can aid gut health, according to Chadbourne. She said freeze-drying can preserve the nutritional value of food since it doesn’t rely on a high heat during processing, but there’s not yet robust evidence on the nutritional profile of a new food like freeze-dried kimchi. She said flash freezing is another effective way to preserve the peak nutrients of a freshly harvested food.
For the consumer, these products are a convenient way to buy nutritious local produce outside the limited months of New England’s growing season.
“Especially here in New England, where we have such drastic seasons that impact how long we can grow food, any type of novel preservation technique is going to help us maximize our crops during the seasons where we can grow,” said Chadbourne.
The individual quick freezer Zydenbos acquired is different from a typical household freezer. It freezes produce in about 20 minutes as opposed to 48 hours, Zydenbos said. And rather than locking produce into one solid chunk, it freezes berries or broccoli as individual pieces, which makes it easier to use at home.
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If freeze-dried kimchi seems a little out there, that’s a challenge Zydenbos has faced before. When she started her fermented food business in 2012, kimchi was still on the fringes of food culture in New England. Zydenbos said she had to work with state agencies as they learned how to regulate the food. Then she toured the state’s farmers markets educating consumers and evangelizing the benefits of fermented foods.
Even before that, there were her own doubts to overcome.
“When you first do it, you’re like, Oh, my god, this goes against everything that you’ve been taught,” she said. “You’re basically leaving vegetables out on the warm shelf to transform.”
“I’m going to kill somebody,” she remembers thinking while fermenting a batch for her own consumption after attending a kimchi-making workshop.
Micro Mama’s refrigerator trailer outside the processing facility in Weare, N.H.Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff
Micro Mama’s fermenting tanks inside the temperature-controlled fermenting room in Weare, N.H.Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff
Zydenbos came to fermenting in search of healing. For years, she relied on copious quantities of probiotic supplements to ease digestive issues. When she started making kimchi, that became her new cure.
From there, a kimchi empire was born.
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“In terms of somebody who really put it on the map in this region, I think Micro Mama’s is a huge player in that,” said Menard. He was the produce manager at the Concord Co-op when Zydenbos landed her account there. Menard said he hadn’t had kimchi before, but he was blown away by the flavor of her product, which was well received among the co-op’s customers.
By 2017, Zydenbos had built a facility in Weare on a property that had been in her family since the 1970s. The fermenting dens now contain 40,000 pounds of vegetables in production, all subject to strict federal and state safety regulations. She sourced stainless steel fermenting tanks from Italy and Germany to avoid using plastic containers.
When Whole Foods first came to New Hampshire, Zydenbos put her line of products forward – including kimchi, sauerkraut, and fermented carrots and beets, sourced from New Hampshire farms. The food safety work she had done with state agencies paid off, Zydenbos said, when she was able to show Whole Foods her quality control measures.
Now, with her new equipment, Zydenbos is planning to add freeze-dried kimchi to her lineup, as well as launch a spice line and food that will appeal to hikers, campers, and preppers.
“The possibilities are endless,” she said.
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With the individual quick freezer, she can produce frozen carrots, beets, potatoes, and French-fry cut potatoes, which could be sold at local grocery stores or to New Hampshire restaurants.
Zydenbos views these efforts as a way to help farms access markets they haven’t been able to reach given a lack of processing equipment, licensing, or capital. She said the demand already exists.
Bruce Wooster of Picadilly Farm in Winchester, N.H., has been selling produce to Zydenbos for about five years. He said her new endeavor with flash frozen and freeze-dried produce could help growers extend their selling season.
“All the local farms have their crop coming all at once,” he said. “It can be tough to spread out those sales, but by freezing you can spread things out and not be like, ‘Hey, we’ve got to sell it this week before it spoils.’”
The Concord Food Co-op is one local grocery store that’s eager to include local frozen produce on its shelves.
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“We have frozen vegetables that fly off the shelf,” said Josh Belanger, the store’s former general manager. “I think if we had them locally they’d do even better.”
Josh Marshall, assistant commissioner of the New Hampshire Department of Agriculture, Markets, and Food, said the new equipment will help make more local food available.
“For a small producer to be able to buy directly from small, New Hampshire farmers, and do this, this seems relatively cutting edge,” Marshall said.
Amanda Gokee can be reached at amanda.gokee@globe.com. Follow her @amanda_gokee.
