Young Democrat Candidates Clinch Municipal Seats Across New Hampshire
Historic night capped with a sweep of all 3 at large Nashua seats
Manchester, NH– Last night, 16 New Hampshire Young Democrats from 7 cities were elected to municipal offices across New Hampshire. Celebrating this unprecedented wave of victories, the New Hampshire Young Democrats issued the following press release:
“Millennials across New Hampshire aren't waiting around for others to make the change we need to make our state better. They are ready to lead and to make our communities thrive. They're ready to stand up and keep New Hampshire the best place in the country to stay, work, learn, and start a family. When young people are elected and bring fresh new ideas to local government, our communities are better for it,” said NHYD President Lucas Meyer. “We are sick and tired of seeing our peers moving out of state because of short-sighted decisions made by out of touch politicians like forcing tuition hikes at our universities, restricting our ability to vote, lack of sensible transportation options like commuter rail and seemingly annual threats to basic women's healthcare. Tonight we applaud the passion of all young candidates who ran this year and we celebrate those who were victorious tonight. We are excited to support their agendas as they take office next year and we look forward to continuing to help recruit, train, and elect more young people to state offices in New Hampshire in 2018.
The New Hampshire Young Democrats are the only statewide group organizing millennial Democrats. The NHYDs work to activate, engage, and train youth in state and local politics. The NH Young Democrats provided support, training, and resources to candidates running in municipal elections throughout the state through their 603-Forward Program. Started in 2008, this program helps identify and elect young candidates to local and state offices. Across the state, the NHYDs activated 200 of our volunteers, organized over 50 canvass launches and phonebanks, 4 days of action, and multiple trainings to help create the grassroots infrastructure needed to win these competitive races. Additionally, the NHYDs invested unprecedented amounts of resources into our endorsed candidates races in order to run aggressive digital and GOTV texting campaigns to turn out democratic and independent voters in an off year election.
“We had over 30 young people run for municipal office this year, with 20 running in Manchester alone, many of them first-time candidates,” said NHYD 603-Forward Program Director Theo Groh. “New Hampshire cities and towns have long struggled to figure out how to attract young families and keep young people in their communities. Who could know more about how do that then this incredibly hardworking group of newly elected young leaders?” he continued “We are so proud as an organization to have been be able to develop the infrastructure to help these great candidates run."
Winning Candidates:
Erika Connors, State Representative Special Election, Manchester Ward 8*# Shoshanna Kelly, Alderwoman-at-large, Nashua (first woman of color to serve as at large alderman) *# Dave Tencza, Alderman-at-large, Nashua*# Brandon Laws, Alderman-at-large, Nashua*# Josh Denton, City Council-at-large, Portsmouth Lindsey Williams, City Council-at-large, Dover* Ed Levasseur, City Council-at-large, Somersworth* Maggie Rice, City Council, Keene * Jeremy Hutchinson, City Council, Rochester*# Zachary Kohler, School Board, Dover* Heather Raymond, School Board, Nashua*# Marissa Chase, Selectman, Manchester* Caitlin Curran, Selectman, Manchester* Jeremy Paris, Selectman, Manchester* Kate Marquis, Selectman, Manchester* Karen Ladd, Clerk, Manchester *=First time candidate $= Red to Blue Flip
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