Joe Kelly Levasseur signs up to run in NH-01 GOP primary, June 14, 2024.
It took until the last day of filing, but MAGA finally made the GOP primary ballot in New Hampshire.
On Friday afternoon, Manchester Alderman-at-Large Joe Kelly Levasseur formally entered the First Congressional District Republican primary. He told NHJournal he did it for one reason: To support Donald Trump.
“One hundred percent to be with Trump and to help him get his agenda through,” Levasseur said when asked why he’s running. “Stop the lawfare, stop the impeachments, stop the Democrat hit pieces on this guy. He needs allies, he doesn’t need milquetoast Republicans. He needs real, hard-core ‘America First’ Republicans in Congress.”
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Levasseur is joining a field that already features businessman and military veteran Chris Bright, business owner Hollie Noveletsky, and former Executive Councilor Russell Prescott. Bright and Noveletsky are first-time candidates, while Prescott came in fourth in the 2022 GOP primary for this seat. He plans to inject a surge of Trumpian politics into what he sees as a sleepy race for the nomination.
“They’ve been running for months and months. Nobody’s been talking about it or hearing about it,” Levasseur said of the rest of the GOP field. And while he also described Noveletsky and Prescott as “very serious candidates who got in early,” he says his entrance into the race will help them.
“I think they’re going to benefit by me getting in,” Levasseur told WFEA radio host Drew Cline on Friday. “I think it’ll add a lot more energy and it will certainly focus a lot more [attention] over to this side of the district,” meaning Manchester as opposed to the seacoast.
“A lot of people know me and I think there’ll be a lot more attention on this race,” Levasseur said.
Greg Moore with Americans for Prosperity New Hampshire described Levasseur’s decision “the only real spice added during the filing period” for the September primaries. “The rest was pretty well baked into the cake.”
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Not that everyone is happy about Levasseur’s decision. A frequent candidate, a combative media presence, and an outspoken member of the GOP’s populist wing, Levasseur has plenty of enemies on both sides of the aisle.
“He’s Karoline Leavitt without the money or good looks,” one New Hampshire Republican activist told NHJournal on background.
Levasseur has run for office several times before, including a narrow loss to Chris Pappas in the 2016 Executive Council race. Two years later, Pappas was elected to Congress. He’s also run for state Senate and House of Representatives, and he was elected Hillsborough County Register of Probate in 2014.
One unintended consequence of Levasseur’s candidacy could be its impact on the race for governor. Levasseur says he plans to make Manchester — and the Democrats’ poor performance there — a central part of his campaign. Which means plenty of negative attacks on former Mayor Joyce Craig.
“I want to give Joyce Craig the credit she’s due,” Levasseur told NHJournal. “She really is responsible for turning Manchester from blue to red.”
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Republicans have a functioning majority on the board for the first time since 1998.
WILTON, N.H. (WHDH) – A woman died in a Wilton, New Hampshire, house fire Wednesday morning, according to the New Hampshire State Fire Marshal’s Office.
At 9:08 a.m., Wilton firefighters responded to Burns Hill Road after a caller said their home was filling up with smoke. When they arrived, a single-family home was on fire and they found out two people were still inside on the second floor.
A man and a woman were both taken out of the house by firefighters and taken to Elliott Hospital. The woman was pronounced dead and the man is in serious condition.
Officials have not released the name of the victim at this time.
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At this time, investigators are looking into the cause of the fire and are trying to determine if a power outage in the area played a factor. The fire is not currently considered suspicious.
(Copyright (c) 2025 Sunbeam Television. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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Diane Durgin, 67, is accused of shooting at a Black man who inadvertently drove to her property after a prearranged truck part sale, prosecutors said.
A New Hampshire woman is accused of violating the state’s Civil Rights Act four times after she allegedly shot at a man because he was Black, prosecutors said.
Diane Durgin, 67, of Weare, N.H. could face up to a $5,000 fine for each violation she is found to have committed, the office of New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella said in a press release Tuesday.
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Durgin is also charged with criminal threatening against a person with a deadly weapon and attempted first degree assault with a deadly weapon, Michael Garrity, a media representative for the New Hampshire Attorney General, said in an emailed statement to Boston.com.
Durgin had a final pre-trial conference last week, Garrity said.
In a civil complaint filed Tuesday, Durgin is accused of threatening physical force against the victim, the AG said. Prosecutors asked the court to issue a preliminary injunction barring Durgin from repeating her alleged behavior and from contacting the victim and his family.
During the morning hours of Oct. 20, 2024, the victim claims, he “mistakenly” drove to Durgin’s home after a prearranged purchase of a truck part with a seller online, prosecutors wrote as part of their request for an injunction.
When the man — whom prosecutors identified in court documents as X.G. — arrived, Durgin allegedly stepped out of her home and approached his car with a gun “holstered by her waist,” prosecutors wrote.
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Upon noticing that X.G. was Black, Durgin allegedly “removed her gun and pointed it at X.G.,” prosecutors said in the injunction request.
While X.G. explained that he was lost, Durgin called the victim a “Black mother[expletive],” and threatened to “kill him,” prosecutors allege.
As the victim attempted to drive away, Durgin allegedly took her gun and fired two shots at the fleeing man’s car, missing both times, the AG’s office said.
While on the phone with a dispatcher, Durgin allegedly said she shot the man’s car because the victim is Black, the AG said.
“The guy is Black. And he, he…he says he’s meeting someone here and I think he’s coming here to steal,” Durgin allegedly said.
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Police located X.G. and brought him to the Weare Police Department, stopping along the way at the correct seller’s home to complete the truck part purchase, prosecutors wrote in court documents.
To prove a violation of the New Hampshire Civil Rights Act, the AG must show that Durgin “interfered or attempted to interfere with the rights of the victim to engage in lawful activities by threatening to engage in or actually engage in physical force or violence, when such actual or threatening conduct was motivated by race, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, sexual orientation, sex, gender identity, or disability,” prosecutors said.
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