New Hampshire
NH Democratic candidates for governor target Republican Kelly Ayotte in final debate
Republican Kelly Ayotte wasn’t on the debate stage Friday, but New Hampshire’s Democratic gubernatorial hopefuls mentioned her by name at least a dozen times.
Though six Republicans are seeking the GOP nomination in Tuesday’s primary, Ayotte has led in polls and fundraising, making her the target of the three Democrats who appeared in a debate a New England College. Former Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig, Executive Councilor Cinde Warmington and restaurant owner Jon Kiper mentioned her name at least a dozen times, either touting their ability to beat her in the general election or warning that she would be bad for the state.
“Kelly Ayotte was the only senator in New England who voted against universal background checks after 20 children were gunned down at Sandy Hook,” Warmington said in explaining her support for gun safety measures including universal background checks and waiting periods for gun buyers and a ban on military-style weapons in the wake of this week’s school shooting in Georgia.
Craig said she also would support such legislation and described efforts she undertook as mayor, including implementing a gun violence prevention strategy and an app that allows teachers to summon help quickly in an emergency.
“We have to be thinking about both fronts, moving forward with legislation and what can we do to prevent this and protect families in our state,” she said. “There is nothing more important.”
Kiper, however, emphasized that gun violence is rare in New Hampshire and said he would focus his efforts on ensuring dangerous, mentally ill people didn’t have access to guns and protecting those at risk of domestic violence. He also parted ways with the other two candidates in refusing to take the state’s traditional pledge against a general sales or income tax. He said both need to be on the table to pay for schools and noted that he both collects a rooms and meals tax at his restaurant and pays a type of income tax, the business enterprise tax.
“Frankly it is a slap in the face to every restaurant owner in this state to say there’s no sales or income tax,” he said. “Those things exist, they provide income for the state, and the state could not function without them.”
The candidates largely agreed on most policy issues, though Craig and Warmington criticized each others’ backgrounds during a discussion of the state’s opioid crisis. Warmington once was a lobbyist for Purdue Pharma, the makers of OxyContin, but she says it was before the true dangers of the drug and the company’s deceitful marketing were fully known.
“To cherry pick my work is completely misleading,” said Warmington, who suggested that Craig has profited from the opioid crisis because her husband is a lawyer whose firm defended drug traffickers.
“My opponent is bringing my husband into this election because she can’t stand by her full record,” Craig responded. “I stand my by record, and I know the challenges that our local communities are facing when it comes to opioids.”
Kiper, who has lagged behind Craig and Warmington, later insisted that he is the only candidate who can appeal to younger, independent voters.
“The reality is that it’s going to be very hard for Cinde and Joyce to beat Kelly Ayotte for reasons that really are not their fault, but the people that are going to decide this election are going to hear ‘lobbied for Purdue Pharma,’ and they’re going to vote for Kelly. They’re going to see videos of homeless people in Manchester, and they’re going to vote for Kelly Ayotte,” he said. “What I can offer you is that I do not have decades of political baggage.”
New Hampshire
Massachusetts man in burning car rescued by trooper on N.H. Gov. Kelly Ayotte’s security detail
A Bay State man who was trapped in his vehicle after crashing into a toll plaza was rescued by a trooper who’s on New Hampshire Gov. Kelly Ayotte’s security detail, according to police.
The governor also helped at the chaotic scene, police said, as the group helped the seriously injured 51-year-old man from Massachusetts at the Bedford Toll Plaza on the F.E. Everett Turnpike.
The state trooper assigned to the governor’s security detail helped pull the driver from his burning vehicle. The driver has been identified as Yevgeny Mirman.
At 11:55 a.m. on Tuesday, troopers assigned to the Troop B barracks responded to the single-vehicle crash involving a 2026 Lucid Gravity that struck the toll plaza. 911 callers said the vehicle had caught fire, and someone in the vehicle appeared to be trapped.
While units were responding, a veteran trooper assigned to Ayotte’s security detail came upon the crash, saw that the vehicle was actively on fire, and spotted the driver inside the car.
The trooper then pulled the driver from the burning car through a window. Ayotte, along with other witnesses at the scene, provided assistance to the trooper.
Mirman was transported by ambulance to an area hospital with serious injuries. The name of the trooper is being withheld due to the nature of their position.
“Certainly, their actions were heroic in what they did,” Colonel Mark B. Hall said in a statement. “Without hesitation, they put themselves in danger to render aid to someone who was in need of it.”
Troop B was assisted by members of the New Hampshire Department of Transportation, Bedford Fire Department, Litchfield Fire Rescue and Merrimack Fire Rescue.
No charges were immediately filed. However, all aspects of the crash remained under investigation.
Anyone with information that may help the ongoing investigation was asked to contact Trooper Nathan Belanger at Nathan.R.Belanger@dos.nh.gov.
New Hampshire
Texting and driving? Lawmakers want you to pay steeper fines – Monadnock Ledger-Transcript
If you use your cell phone while driving, you may want to think twice — unless you’re willing to pay twice as much.
A bipartisan bill, backed by state law enforcement, would institute higher fines for drivers who use handheld devices behind the wheel. In some cases, motorists could lose their licenses for a month or more.
Sen. Donovan Fenton, a Democrat from Keene who serves on Gov. Kelly Ayotte’s Highway Safety Task Force, pointed to state crash data as reason for the change proposed in his Senate Bill 649
The number of traffic deaths in New Hampshire has crept up over the past few years. In 2023, there were 127 fatalities, at least six of which stemmed from distracted driving, Fenton said.
“Distracted driving is becoming more pronounced, more dangerous and more deadly,” he said at a public hearing last week. “The current penalties are not enough to change behavior, particularly with repeat offenses.”
There were 133 traffic deaths in 2024 and 138 in 2025, according to the Office of Highway Safety. In 2026 so far, thirteen people have died in car crashes.
Fenton’s bill would increase the amount someone has to pay for violating the prohibition on cell phone use while driving. First-time offenders would pay $250 instead of the current $100, and on the second violation in two years, the offender would pay $500. For the third offense in two years, they would pay $750 and lose their license for 30 days. All those penalties could increase if cell phone use behind the wheel is found to be a contributing factor in a car crash.
Current law allows hands-free operation of a cell phone via Bluetooth but prohibits handheld device use. The state collected more than $568,000 in related fines and penalty assessments in the most recent fiscal year.
Distracted driving was a contributing factor in 4,520 of the state’s nearly 28,000 non-fatal crashes in 2023, according to the Department of Safety. That’s a little over 16%, though a report from the task force said officials suspect distracted driving is difficult to track and underreported in more serious collisions. Cell phones are a common culprit in distracted driving.
Ayotte’s task force has highlighted other policies that it says would increase public safety, including doubling the license suspension period for refusing a breathalyzer test.
In the first 10 weeks of 2026, three-quarters of the people arrested for impaired driving in New Hampshire refused to take a breath alcohol test, Ayotte said in a recent press release. The governor has waged a public campaign for the proposed law, Senate Bill 260, which she says would disincentivize drivers from refusing the test.
What’s next: Senate Bill 649 breezed through the Senate earlier this year. The House of Representatives is set to vote on it in the coming weeks after a committee recommended its passage almost unanimously.
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