Annie Kuster | |
---|---|
Chair of the New Democrat Coalition | |
Assumed office January 3, 2023 | |
Preceded by | Suzan DelBene |
Member of the U.S.HouseofRepresentatives from New Hampshire's 2nd district | |
Assumed office January 3,2013 | |
Preceded by | Charles Bass |
Personal details | |
Born | Concord,New Hampshire,U.S. | September 5,1956
Political party | Democratic |
Spouse | Brad Kuster |
Children | 2 |
Relatives | Malcolm McLane (father) Susan Neidlinger (mother) |
Education | Dartmouth College (BA) Georgetown University (JD) |
Website | House website |
Ann L. McLane Kuster (born September 5, 1956) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the U.S. representative for New Hampshire's 2nd congressional district since 2013. A member of the Democratic Party, she previously worked as a lobbyist. [1]
Kuster chairs the New Democrat Coalition, a centrist caucus among House Democrats.
Kuster announced on March 27, 2024, that she would not seek re-election to a seventh term in the U.S. House. [2]
Kuster was born in Concord, New Hampshire, on September 5, 1956. Both her parents were politicians. Her father, Malcolm McLane, was mayor of Concord, a member of the New Hampshire Executive Council, and an owner of Wildcat Mountain Ski Area. In 1972, he ran for governor of New Hampshire as an independent. He received 20% of the vote in an election that Republican Mel Thomson won with a plurality of 40%. [3]
Kuster's mother, Susan McLane, was elected to the New Hampshire Senate as a Republican. [4] In 1980, she ran for New Hampshire's 2nd congressional district, coming in second in the crowded Republican primary, with 25% of the vote. Judd Gregg won with 34% of the vote, while Charles Bass (whom Kuster defeated in 2012) came in third with 22%. [5] Kuster's maternal great grandfather, John McLane, was governor of New Hampshire from 1905 to 1907. He was elected as a Republican in 1904 with 58% of the vote, defeating Democrat Henry Hollis. [6]
Kuster graduated from Dartmouth College in 1978 with a degree in environmental policy. She received a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center in 1984. [7]
After college, Kuster became the director of Concord law firm Rath, Young and Pignatelli's education and nonprofit law practice group.
Kuster was a consultant and owner of Newfound Strategies LLC, a consulting firm. [7] [ dead link ]
Kuster also worked as an "of-counsel" partner at Rath, Young and Pignatelli. Her legal practice focused on education, nonprofit, and health care policy. [4] Kuster has also worked as an adoption attorney. [8]
Kuster has served as chair and board member of the Capitol Center for the Arts and as a founder and vice chair of the Women's Fund of New Hampshire. She has also served on the boards of the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, New Hampshire Public Radio, Child and Family Services of New Hampshire, the Alumni Council and Tucker Foundation at Dartmouth College, and Womankind Counseling Center. [8] [ dead link ]
From 1989 to 2009, Kuster worked as a lobbyist in New Hampshire, earning more than $1.3 million in fees from various businesses and nonprofits. $460,000 of that money came from ambulatory surgical centers, $150,000 from investment companies, and $145,000 from pharmaceutical manufacturers and their association. In an editorial, the Union Leader wrote, "she's also a career lobbyist, not in dreaded Washington, but in Concord. But she's refused to use that word." Rather, Kuster called herself a "public policy advocate". [9] [10]
Kuster's career has also involved many years of lobbying on behalf of clients such as Merck Vaccines; the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), with which she helped created the NH Medication Bridge program, a public-private partnership that provides free prescriptions to patients in need; Fidelity Investments, with which she helped create the NH UNIQUE College Savings Plan to help families save money for college tax-free; Dartmouth College and Medical School; NARAL Pro-Choice New Hampshire; Bedford Ambulatory Surgical Center; and the New Hampshire College & University Council. [4] [9]
According to OpenSecrets, Kuster took $192,553 in contributions from lawyers and lobbyists during the 2010 election cycle. [11]
In 1998, while working on behalf of the pharmaceutical manufacturer Hoffman-LaRoche, Inc., Kuster lobbied against HB 1553. The bill would have reclassified three drugs, including Rohypnol, linked to date rapes, assaults, robberies, and driving offenses, as Schedule 1 Controlled Substances, making them illegal to possess. The University of New Hampshire Sexual Harassment and Rape Prevention Program's coordinator called the rescheduling of Rohypnol an "imperative", as the drug "poses an imminent and serious threat to public health and safety". [12]
Kuster served on the New Hampshire steering committees of the presidential campaigns of Barack Obama in 2007–08 and John Kerry in 2003–04. She and Peggo Hodes (the wife of Representative Paul Hodes) also co-chaired New Hampshire Women for Obama. Kuster was a 2008 delegate for Obama at the Democratic National Convention in Denver and a member of the 2004 New Hampshire Delegation in Boston. In 2020, Kuster endorsed Pete Buttigieg for president, which broke her streak of endorsing the candidate who became the Democratic nominee. [13]
In 2010, Kuster ran for New Hampshire's 2nd congressional district against Republican nominee Charles Bass, Libertarian nominee Howard Wilson, and Independent candidate Tim vanBlommesteyn. It was an open seat as Democratic incumbent Paul Hodes was running for the U.S. Senate.
Bass defeated Kuster 48%–47%, a margin of 3,550 votes. [14]
Kuster ran against Bass again in the 2012 election. She received the endorsement of Democracy for America, and was selected as one of its Dean Dozen.
On November 6, 2012, Kuster defeated Bass, 50%–45%. [1] [15] In doing so, she became a part of the nation's first all-female congressional delegation. It included Senator Jeanne Shaheen, Senator Kelly Ayotte, and Representative Carol Shea-Porter. [1]
Kuster ran for reelection in 2014 against Republican State Representative Marilinda Garcia. Kuster beat Garcia 55-45%. [16] She was a member of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Frontline Program, designed to help protect vulnerable Democratic incumbents in the 2014 elections. [17] The primary election took place on September 9, and the general election on November 4. Republicans who ran in Kuster's district included Garcia and former State Senator Gary Lambert. [18] Former U.N. ambassador John Bolton and his super PAC spent $30,000 on a two-week television ad buy opposing Kuster and her response to the 2012 attack in Benghazi, Libya. [19]
Kuster was reelected in 2016, defeating the Republican nominee, former State Representative Jim Lawrence, 50-45%. [20]
On June 12, Kuster announced she would seek a fourth term in Congress. She ran unopposed in the primary. Four Republicans, Robert Burns, Stewart Levenson, Jay Mercer, and Steve Negron, vied to run against her in the general election, while Tom Alciere filed as a Libertarian candidate. Levenson, reported the Associated Press, "was one of the doctors behind a 2017 whistleblower complaint about care" at the Manchester Veterans Affairs Medical Center, and had "accused Kuster, whom he approached about the issue, of being slow to act on it". [21] Negron won the Republican primary with 27% of the vote. [22] Kuster was reelected.
Kuster ran for reelection to a fifth term. She defeated Joseph Mirzoeff, her sole Democratic challenger, in the primary. [23] In the general election, she faced a rematch with Negron which she won with 53.91% of the vote. [24]
Kuster was selected as the chair of the New Democrat Coalition for the 118th Congress. [25] She was previously a vice chair of the caucus and a longstanding member of the moderate caucus. [25] [26]
Kuster voted with President Joe Biden's stated position 100% of the time in the 117th Congress, according to a FiveThirtyEight analysis. [31]
At a November 2013 Manchester town hall meeting, Kuster fielded questions about the Middle East. After reading a written question regarding establishing a select committee to investigate the terrorist attack in Benghazi, Kuster indicated that the questions "should stay focused on the Middle East". Audience members replied that Libya is in the "Middle East". Libya is generally not included in definitions of the Middle East, but it is part of the Arab world and the Arab Maghreb. The video quickly went viral online, gaining more than 260,000 views in less than 48 hours. [32] [33]
Kuster supported the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). [34] [35] In a joint presentation in July 2017, she and Representative Peter Welch asserted the need to overcome partisan disagreement on Obamacare and to "find common ground in fixing Obamacare" by focusing on "individual markets". [36]
In November 2013, Kuster charged the National Security Agency, which had secretly tapped into data centers operated by Google and Yahoo, with violating privacy. "It just went way beyond what most people's expectations for privacy are in this country, and I think, despite people's best efforts to protect privacy, things had developed to a place where the American people now want to have a debate and have a conversation", she said. "It's a balancing act between privacy and safety and security of our country....But my point of view is we don't want to lose our liberty in the course of trying to protect our safety." This statement came days after she supported the USA Freedom Act, which would overhaul the NSA and curb its "worst excesses". [37]
Year | Democratic | Votes | Pct | Republican | Votes | Pct | 3rd Party | Party | Votes | Pct | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2010 | Ann McLane Kuster | 105,060 | 46.8% | Charles Bass | 108,610 | 48.3% | Tim vanBlommesteyn | Independent | 6,197 | 2.8% | * | |||
2012 | Ann McLane Kuster | 169,275 | 50.2% | Charles Bass (incumbent) | 152,977 | 45.3% | Hardy Macia | Libertarian | 14,936 | 4.4% | * | |||
2014 | 130,700 | 54.9% | Marilinda Garcia | 106,871 | 44.9% | * | ||||||||
2016 | 174,495 | 49.7% | Jim Lawrence | 158,973 | 45.3% | John Babiarz | Independent | 17,088 | 4.9% | * | ||||
2018 | 155,358 | 55.5% | Steve Negron | 117,990 | 42.2% | Justin O'Donnell | Libertarian | 6,206 | 2.2% | * | ||||
2020 | 207,863 | 53.9% | 168,491 | 43.7% | Andrew Olding | 9,093 | 2.4% | * | ||||||
2022 | 171,636 | 55.8% | Bob Burns | 135,579 | 44.0% |
* Write-in and minor candidate notes: In 2010, Libertarian candidate Howard L. Wilson received 4,796 votes. In 2012, write-ins received 206 votes. In 2014, write-ins received 613 votes. In 2016, write-ins received 236 votes. In 2018, write-ins received 151 votes. In 2020, write-ins received 147 votes.
In 2000, Kuster received the Eleanor Roosevelt Award for "dedicated service to the Democratic Party at the local, state and national levels". [38]
Kuster is married to Brad Kuster, a fellow lawyer. They reside in Hopkinton and have two sons.
Kuster and her mother, State Senator Susan McLane, coauthored a book, The Last Dance: Facing Alzheimer's with Love and Laughter. [39] After her mother's death, Kuster and her father, Malcolm McLane, toured New Hampshire speaking publicly about aging and Alzheimer's disease and the resulting burdens on families and caregivers.
In February 2013, WMUR-TV reported that Kuster had been late paying property taxes on a home in Hopkinton starting in 2010 and had failed to pay two tax bills for a property in Jackson in 2012. After the report, Kuster said the bills were being paid. [40] Kuster, whose assets have been estimated at $1.8 million, was reported to have been late on taxes six separate times since 2010, totaling $40,000 in back taxes. Kuster ultimately paid the taxes. When asked why she was consistently late, Kuster said, "Life is expensive." [41] [42]
On June 21, 2016, Kuster announced from the floor of the House that she had been sexually assaulted as a college student. She also said that when she was 23 and working as an aide on Capitol Hill, her boss took her to dinner with a "distinguished guest of the United States Congress" (South African heart surgeon Christiaan Barnard) who, under the table, put his hand under her skirt. Not long after, she was assaulted and mugged on a Washington street. She had never previously told anyone about these incidents. She said she had been motivated to come forward by a sexual assault case at Stanford University. [43]
In Washington, Kuster lives with her close friend House Minority Whip Katherine Clark and other members. [44]
Cynthia Jeanne Shaheen is an American politician and former educator currently serving as the senior United States senator from New Hampshire, a seat she has held since January 2009. A member of the Democratic Party, she also served as the 78th governor of New Hampshire from 1997 to 2003. Shaheen is the first woman elected as both a governor and a U.S. senator, and the first woman elected governor of New Hampshire.
Charles Foster Bass is an American politician and member of the Republican Party who served as a member of the United States House of Representatives for New Hampshire's 2nd congressional district from 1995 to 2007 and 2011 to 2013. He is the son of Perkins Bass, who also represented the same New Hampshire district from 1955 to 1963.
Carol Shea-Porter is an American politician and member of the Democratic Party who is the former member of the United States House of Representatives for New Hampshire's 1st congressional district. She held the seat from 2007 to 2011, 2013 to 2015, and 2017 to 2019.
New Hampshire's 2nd congressional district covers the western, northern, and some southern parts of New Hampshire. It includes the state's second-largest city, Nashua, as well as the state capital, Concord. It is currently represented in the United States House of Representatives by Democrat Ann McLane Kuster.
New Hampshire is often noted for its moderate politics and its status as a prominent swing state. Voters predominantly selected Republicans for national office during the 19th and 20th centuries until 1992. Since then, the state has been considered a swing state. Since 2006, control of the state legislature and New Hampshire's congressional seats have switched back and forth between Republicans and Democrats. Although the state has voted for the Democratic candidate in the last six presidential elections since 2004, it has done so by relatively small, however consistent margins.
Yvonne Katrina Swett is the President of the Lantos Foundation. She is also an American educator and the former chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom from 2012 to 2013, and then in 2014 to 2015. She ran unsuccessfully as the Democratic candidate for Congress in New Hampshire's 2nd congressional district during the 2002 United States midterm elections.
Molly Kelly is an American politician. A member of the Democratic Party, she served in the New Hampshire Senate, representing the 10th District from 2006 until 2016. She was the Democratic nominee for Governor of New Hampshire in the 2018 election.
The 2010 congressional elections in New Hampshire were held on November 2, 2010, to determine who will represent the state of New Hampshire in the United States House of Representatives. It coincided with the state's senatorial and gubernatorial elections. Representatives are elected for two-year terms; those elected served in the 112th Congress from January 2011 until January 2013.
William Lawrence O'Brien is a lawyer and Republican legislator from Mont Vernon, New Hampshire who served as a member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives beginning in 2004, representing district Hillsborough-4. He was elected the Speaker of the House on December 1, 2010, when Republicans took control of the House. When Democrats regained control of the House in the 2012 election, O'Brien did not run for a leadership position.
The 2012 United States House of Representatives elections in New Hampshire were held on Tuesday, November 6, 2012, to elect the two U.S. representatives from the state of New Hampshire. The elections coincided with the elections of other federal and state offices, including a quadrennial presidential election.
Colin Van Ostern is an American businessman and politician who served on the New Hampshire Executive Council from 2013 to 2017, where he represented the state's second district. He is a member of the Democratic Party, and was the Democratic nominee for Governor of New Hampshire in 2016. He was a candidate for a two-year term as New Hampshire Secretary of State in the New Hampshire General Court's 2018 election, which he lost to incumbent Bill Gardner. He ran in the 2024 Democratic primary to succeed Annie Kuster in New Hampshire's 2nd congressional district; he was defeated by Maggie Goodlander.
John Steven Vaillancourt was an American politician, who served as a member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives. He represented Hillsborough County District 15, the city of Manchester Ward 8. He served from 1996 to 2014 and from 2016 until his death. He served as a member of the Democratic Party, the Libertarian Party, and later the Republican Party. Vaillancourt also served as Manchester alderman for Ward 8 from 1999 to 2001 while serving in the State House of Representatives.
The 2014 United States House of Representatives elections in New Hampshire were held on Tuesday, November 4, 2014, to elect the two U.S. representatives from the state of New Hampshire, one from each of the state's two congressional districts. The elections coincided with the elections of other federal and state offices, including governor of New Hampshire and U.S. senator. This election marked the first time since 1992 that New Hampshire elected members of two parties into the House of Representatives, and is to date the only time since 2010 that Republicans won any congressional election in New Hampshire.
Marilinda Joy Garcia is an American lobbyist and politician from the state of New Hampshire. A Republican, she served in the New Hampshire House of Representatives, representing the Rockingham 8th district from 2012 to 2014. She previously represented the Rockingham 4th district from 2007 to 2009 and from 2009 to 2012. A harpist, Garcia is also a music teacher.
The 2016 United States House of Representatives elections in New Hampshire were held on November 8, 2016, to elect the two U.S. representatives from the state of New Hampshire, one from each of the state's two congressional districts. The elections coincided with the 2016 U.S. presidential election, as well as other elections to the House of Representatives, elections to the United States Senate and various state and local elections. The primaries were held on September 13.
Susan McLane was an American politician.
The 2018 United States House of Representatives elections in New Hampshire were held on November 6, 2018, to elect the two U.S. representatives from the state of New Hampshire, one from each of the state's two congressional districts. The elections coincided with other elections to the House of Representatives, elections to the United States Senate and various state and local elections.
Steve Negron is an American politician from Nashua, New Hampshire who served in the New Hampshire House of Representatives. He was the Republican nominee for the United States Congress in New Hampshire's 2nd congressional district in 2018 and 2020, losing both times to Democratic incumbent Annie Kuster.
The 2020 United States House of Representatives elections in New Hampshire were held on November 3, 2020, to elect the two U.S. representatives from the state of New Hampshire, one from each of the state's two congressional districts. The elections coincided with the 2020 U.S. presidential election, as well as other elections to the House of Representatives, elections to the United States Senate and various state and local elections.
The 2024 United States House of Representatives elections in New Hampshire were held on November 5, 2024, to elect the two U.S. representatives from the state of New Hampshire, one from each of the state's two congressional districts. Primary elections took place on September 10, 2024.