| Elections in New Hampshire |
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Elections in the U.S. state of New Hampshire are held at national, state and local (county and municipal) level. The state holds the first presidential primary in the national cycle. Elections for a range of state positions coincide with biennial elections for the House of Representatives.
In a 2020 study, New Hampshire was ranked as the 6th hardest state for citizens to vote in. [1]
| Year | Democratic | Republican |
|---|---|---|
| 1950 | 43.0% 82,258 | 57.0%108,907 |
| 1952 | 36.9% 97,924 | 63.2%167,791 |
| 1954 | 44.9% 87,344 | 55.1%107,287 |
| 1956 | 45.3% 117,117 | 54.7%141,578 |
| 1958 | 48.4% 99,955 | 51.7%106,790 |
| 1960 | 44.5% 129,404 | 55.5%161,123 |
| 1962 | 58.9%135,481 | 41.1% 94,567 |
| 1964 | 66.8%190,863 | 33.2% 94,824 |
| 1966 | 53.9%125,882 | 45.9% 107,259 |
| 1968 | 47.4% 135,378 | 52.5%149,902 |
| 1970 | 44.1% 98,098 | 46.0%102,298 |
| 1972 | 39.0% 126,107 | 41.4%133,702 |
| 1974 | 48.8% 110,591 | 51.2%115,933 |
| 1976 | 42.3% 145,015 | 57.7%197,589 |
| 1978 | 49.4%133,133 | 45.4% 122,464 |
| 1980 | 59.0%226,436 | 40.7% 156,178 |
| 1982 | 46.8% 132,317 | 51.5%145,389 |
| 1984 | 33.1% 127,156 | 66.9%256,574 |
| 1986 | 46.3% 116,142 | 53.7%134,824 |
| 1988 | 39.1% 172,543 | 60.5%267,064 |
| 1990 | 34.7% 101,923 | 60.5%177,773 |
| 1992 | 40.0% 206,232 | 56.0%289,170 |
| 1994 | 25.6% 79,686 | 70.0%218,134 |
| 1996 | 57.2%284,175 | 39.5% 196,321 |
| 1998 | 66.1%210,769 | 30.9% 98,473 |
| 2000 | 48.7%275,038 | 43.8% 246,952 |
| 2002 | 38.2% 169,277 | 58.6%259,663 |
| 2004 | 51.0%340,299 | 48.9% 325,981 |
| 2006 | 74.0%298,761 | 25.8% 104,288 |
| 2008 | 70.2%479,042 | 27.6% 188,555 |
| 2010 | 52.6%240,346 | 45.0% 205,616 |
| 2012 | 54.6%378,934 | 42.5% 295,026 |
| 2014 | 52.4%254,666 | 47.4% 230,610 |
| 2016 | 46.6% 337,589 | 48.8%354,040 |
| 2018 | 45.7% 262,359 | 52.8%302,764 |
| 2020 | 33.4% 264,639 | 65.1%516,609 |
| 2022 | 41.5% 256,774 | 57.0%352,982 |
The state of New Hampshire holds its state general elections on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November (better known as Election Day) in even-numbered years. As a result of this, general elections in New Hampshire systematically coincide with the biennial elections for the United States House of Representatives.
During general elections in New Hampshire, elections are held for the positions of Governor, Executive Councilor, state Senator, state Representative, Sheriff, County Attorney, County Treasurer, Register of Deeds, and Register of Probate. Officials elected to all nine of these offices are elected for a term of two years.
Election of County Commissioners also occurs during the state's general elections, but rules for these elections vary by county. [3] In Strafford County, for example, three County Commissioners are elected to two-year terms at every general election. In Carroll County, by contrast, three County Commissioners are elected to rotating four-year terms.
New Hampshire's Governor is elected at large; Executive Councilors, state Senators, and state Representatives are elected by district; Sheriff, County Attorney, County Treasurer, Register of Deeds, and Register of Probate are elected by county; and County Commissioners are elected, again, by rules that vary from county to county. [3]
New Hampshire currently has 400 seats in its House of Representatives, 24 seats in its Senate, and five seats on its Executive Council.
New Hampshire is well known in national politics for holding the first primary in the quadrennial U.S. presidential election cycle. This New Hampshire primary is actually mandated by state law. New Hampshire RSA 653:9 [4] requires that the state's presidential primary elections be scheduled on the earlier of:
| Year | Republican / Whig | Democratic | Third party | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | % | No. | % | No. | % | |
| 2020 | 365,660 | 45.36% | 424,937 | 52.71% | 15,608 | 1.94% |
| 2016 | 345,790 | 46.46% | 348,526 | 46.83% | 49,980 | 6.72% |
| 2012 | 329,918 | 46.40% | 369,561 | 51.98% | 11,493 | 1.62% |
| 2008 | 316,534 | 44.52% | 384,826 | 54.13% | 9,610 | 1.35% |
| 2004 | 331,237 | 48.87% | 340,511 | 50.24% | 5,990 | 0.88% |
| 2000 | 273,559 | 48.07% | 266,348 | 46.80% | 29,174 | 5.13% |
| 1996 | 196,532 | 39.37% | 246,214 | 49.32% | 56,429 | 11.30% |
| 1992 | 202,484 | 37.64% | 209,040 | 38.86% | 126,421 | 23.50% |
| 1988 | 281,537 | 62.49% | 163,696 | 36.33% | 5,292 | 1.17% |
| 1984 | 267,051 | 68.66% | 120,395 | 30.95% | 1,508 | 0.39% |
| 1980 | 221,705 | 57.74% | 108,864 | 28.35% | 53,430 | 13.91% |
| 1976 | 185,935 | 54.75% | 147,635 | 43.47% | 6,048 | 1.78% |
| 1972 | 213,724 | 63.98% | 116,435 | 34.85% | 3,900 | 1.17% |
| 1968 | 154,903 | 52.10% | 130,589 | 43.93% | 11,807 | 3.97% |
| 1964 | 104,029 | 36.11% | 184,064 | 63.89% | 0 | 0.00% |
| 1960 | 157,989 | 53.42% | 137,772 | 46.58% | 0 | 0.00% |
| 1956 | 176,519 | 66.11% | 90,364 | 33.84% | 111 | 0.04% |
| 1952 | 166,287 | 60.92% | 106,663 | 39.08% | 0 | 0.00% |
| 1948 | 121,299 | 52.41% | 107,995 | 46.66% | 2,146 | 0.93% |
| 1944 | 109,916 | 47.87% | 119,663 | 52.11% | 48 | 0.02% |
| 1940 | 110,127 | 46.78% | 125,292 | 53.22% | 0 | 0.00% |
| 1936 | 104,642 | 47.98% | 108,460 | 49.73% | 5,012 | 2.30% |
| 1932 | 103,629 | 50.42% | 100,680 | 48.99% | 1,211 | 0.59% |
| 1928 | 115,404 | 58.65% | 80,715 | 41.02% | 638 | 0.32% |
| 1924 | 98,575 | 59.83% | 57,201 | 34.72% | 8,993 | 5.46% |
| 1920 | 95,196 | 59.84% | 62,662 | 39.39% | 1,234 | 0.78% |
| 1916 | 43,725 | 49.06% | 43,781 | 49.12% | 1,621 | 1.82% |
| 1912 | 32,927 | 37.43% | 34,724 | 39.48% | 20,310 | 23.09% |
| 1908 | 53,149 | 59.32% | 33,655 | 37.56% | 2,796 | 3.12% |
| 1904 | 54,163 | 60.07% | 34,074 | 37.79% | 1,924 | 2.13% |
| 1900 | 54,799 | 59.33% | 35,489 | 38.42% | 2,076 | 2.25% |
| 1896 | 57,444 | 68.66% | 21,650 | 25.88% | 4,576 | 5.47% |
| 1892 | 45,658 | 51.11% | 42,081 | 47.11% | 1,590 | 1.78% |
| 1888 | 45,728 | 50.34% | 43,456 | 47.84% | 1,651 | 1.82% |
| 1884 | 43,254 | 51.14% | 39,198 | 46.34% | 2,134 | 2.52% |
| 1880 | 44,856 | 51.94% | 40,797 | 47.24% | 708 | 0.82% |
| 1876 | 41,540 | 51.83% | 38,510 | 48.05% | 91 | 0.11% |
| 1872 | 37,168 | 53.94% | 31,425 | 45.61% | 313 | 0.45% |
| 1868 | 37,718 | 55.22% | 30,575 | 44.76% | 11 | 0.02% |
| 1864 | 36,596 | 52.56% | 33,034 | 47.44% | 0 | 0.00% |
| 1860 | 37,519 | 56.90% | 25,887 | 39.26% | 2,537 | 3.85% |
| 1856 | 37,473 | 53.71% | 31,891 | 45.71% | 410 | 0.59% |
| 1852 | 15,486 | 30.64% | 28,503 | 56.40% | 6,546 | 12.95% |
| 1848 | 14,781 | 29.50% | 27,763 | 55.41% | 7,560 | 15.09% |
| 1844 | 17,866 | 36.32% | 27,160 | 55.22% | 4,161 | 8.46% |
| 1840 | 26,310 | 43.88% | 32,774 | 54.66% | 872 | 1.45% |
| 1836 | 6,228 | 24.99% | 18,697 | 75.01% | 0 | 0.00% |
New Hampshire voters selected Republicans for office during the 19th and 20th centuries until 1992. Since then, voters have chosen Democrats for U.S. President all but once, while voting Democratic for most state offices in 2006 and 2008 and Republican for most state offices in 2010. On selected issues, political debate in New Hampshire centers on personal liberty. Historically, New Hampshire was a staunchly conservative state and regularly voted Republican. Some sources trace the founding of the Republican Party to the town of Exeter in 1853. Prior to 1992, New Hampshire had only strayed from the Republican Party for three presidential candidates—Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Lyndon B. Johnson. The state voted for Presidents Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan twice by overwhelming majorities.
Beginning in 1992, New Hampshire became a swing state in both national and local elections. The state supported Democrats Bill Clinton in 1992 and 1996, John Kerry in 2004, and Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012. It was the only U.S. state to support George W. Bush in the 2000 election and go Democratic in the 2004 election. The state has elected three Democrats to the Governorship during this period.
The voters selected Democrats in New Hampshire as they did nationally in 2006 and 2008. In 2006, Democrats won both congressional seats (electing Carol Shea-Porter in the 1st district and Paul Hodes in the 2nd district), re-elected Governor John Lynch, and gained a majority on the Executive Council and in both houses of the legislature for the first time since 1911. Democrats had not held both the legislature and the governorship since 1874. [6] Neither U.S. Senate seat was up for a vote in 2006. In 2008, Democrats retained their majorities, governorship, and congressional seats; and former governor Jeanne Shaheen defeated incumbent Republican John E. Sununu for the U.S. Senate in a rematch of the 2002 contest. Barack Obama won the simultaneous presidential election and carried every New Hampshire county for the Democrats for the first time since 1852. It had been thought that Democrats moving in from Massachusetts were responsible for the shift. A 2006 University of New Hampshire survey found that those immigrants were mostly Republican. Their moving had helped the border towns to remain Republican, while other areas had become increasingly Democratic. The study indicated that immigrants from states other than Massachusetts tended to lean Democratic.[ citation needed ]
The 2008 elections resulted in women holding 13 of the 24 seats in the New Hampshire Senate, a first for any legislative body in the United States. [7] At the end of the 2008 election cycle, voters registered Democratic outnumbered those registered Republican.
In the 2010 midterm elections, New Hampshire voted out both of its Democratic members in the House of Representatives in favor of Republicans. Republicans also won control of both chambers of the State House by veto-proof majorities, while Governor John Lynch won an unprecedented fourth term. Two years later, in the 2012 elections, New Hampshire voted out both of its Republican members in the House of Representatives in favor of Democrats. At the same time, voters returned Democrats to the majority in the State House of Representatives, while Republicans held on to a narrow 13-11 majority in the State Senate, despite losing the popular vote. Democrat Maggie Hassan won the 2012 gubernatorial election with a 12% margin of victory, with 54.6% of the vote in the gubernatorial election, becoming the first Democrat to succeed another Democrat as Governor of New Hampshire since 1854.
However, Republicans gained control of the State House in 2014, and in 2016 elections, Republican Executive Councilor Chris Sununu was elected as Governor, giving Republicans full control over state government. [8] However, the state narrowly went to Democrat Hillary Clinton over Republican Donald Trump in that year's presidential election. Meanwhile, Democratic governor Maggie Hassan defeated incumbent Republican Kelly Ayotte to join Senator Jeanne Shaheen and Representatives Carol Shea-Porter and Ann McLane Kuster to make the entire congressional delegation represented by the Democratic party for the first time since 1854.
In the 2018 midterm elections, both chambers of the state legislature returned to Democratic control, while Sununu was reelected as governor, resulting in divided government. While New Hampshire Democrats retained their seats in the 2020 federal elections, Republicans regained the majority in the state's Senate, House of Representatives, and Executive Council. New Hampshire's incumbent Republican Gov. Chris Sununu also won the election to his third term in office against Democrat Dan Feltes. This election signaled Republican strength on a state level, flipping the Senate from a 14-10 Democratic majority to a 14-10 Republican majority. [9] The house flipped to the GOP with 213 Republicans and 187 Democrats. [10]
The Solid South or the Southern bloc was the electoral voting bloc of the states of the Southern United States for issues that were regarded as particularly important to the interests of Democrats in those states. The Southern bloc existed especially between the end of Reconstruction in 1877 and the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964. During this period, the Democratic Party overwhelmingly controlled southern state legislatures, and most local, state and federal officeholders in the South were Democrats. During the late 1800s and early 1900s, Southern Democrats disenfranchised blacks in all Southern states, along with a few non-Southern states doing the same as well. This resulted essentially in a one-party system, in which a candidate's victory in Democratic primary elections was tantamount to election to the office itself. White primaries were another means that the Democrats used to consolidate their political power, excluding blacks from voting in primaries.
The Kansas Republican Party is the state affiliate political party in Kansas of the United States Republican Party. The Kansas Republican Party was organized in May 1859.
The New Hampshire Senate is the upper house of the New Hampshire General Court, alongside the lower New Hampshire House of Representatives. The Senate has been meeting since 1784. The Senate consists of 24 members representing Senate districts based on population. As of December 7, 2022 there are 14 Republicans and 10 Democrats.
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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 five presidential elections since 2004, it has done so by relatively small margins. However, while southern New Hampshire is noted for its moderate views, northern New Hampshire tends towards hardline conservative politics.
The 2008 United States elections were held on November 4. Democratic Senator Barack Obama of Illinois won the presidential election, by defeating his challenger, Senator John McCain, and the Democrats bolstered their majority in both Houses of Congress.
Elections in Florida are held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday of November in even-numbered years, as provided for in Article 6 of the Florida Constitution. For state elections, the Governor of Florida, Lieutenant Governor, and the members of the Florida Cabinet, and members of the Florida Senate are elected every four years; members of the Florida House of Representatives are elected every two years. In national elections, Florida plays an important role as the largest bellwether state, occasionally determining the outcome of elections for U.S. President — as it did in 1876 and in 2000.
The 2010 United States elections were held on Tuesday, November 2, 2010, in the middle of Democratic President Barack Obama's first term. Republicans ended unified Democratic control of Congress and the presidency by winning a majority in the House of Representatives.
The politics of Colorado, United States, are that of a blue state. Once considered a purple state that used to be reliably Republican, Colorado has been trending Democratic since the early part of the 21st century due to changing demographics and a rising number of the large unaffiliated bloc of voters leaning Democratic. The growing shift of the state's Republican Party towards social and religious conservatism along with shifting further to the right has also been cited as reasons for the changing voting patterns of Colorado. After showing support for the populist movement between the 1890s and 1910s, Colorado voted for Republicans nationally, all but four times between 1920 and 2004. Only in 1932, 1936, 1964, and 1992 did the state vote Democratic, however, since 2008, Democrats have won the state four cycles in a row, the longest such win streak for the party in the state's history. Democrats have historically faired better for other offices, however, they tended to be more moderate than the national party.
The Government of Mississippi is the government of the U.S. state of Mississippi. Power in Mississippi's government is distributed by the state's Constitution between the executive and legislative branches. The state's current governor is Tate Reeves. The Mississippi Legislature consists of the House of Representatives and Senate. Mississippi is one of only five states that elects its state officials in odd numbered years. Mississippi holds elections for these offices every four years in the years preceding Presidential election years. Thus, the last year when Mississippi elected a Governor was 2019, and the next gubernatorial election will occur in 2023.
The 2012 United States elections took place on November 6, 2012. Democratic President Barack Obama won reelection to a second term and the Democrats gained seats in both chambers of Congress, retaining control of the Senate even though the Republican Party retained control of the House of Representatives. As of 2022, this is the most recent election cycle in which neither the presidency nor a chamber of Congress changed partisan control, and the last time that the winner of the presidential race provided coattails for their party in both the House of Representatives and the Senate.
Elections in Virginia are authorized under Article I of the Virginia State Constitution, sections 5–6, and Article V which establishes elections for the state level officers, cabinet, and legislature. Article VII section 4 establishes the election of county-level officers.
The 1996 United States elections were held on November 5. Democratic President Bill Clinton won re-election, while the Republicans maintained their majorities in both houses of the United States Congress.
The 2016 United States elections were held on Tuesday, November 8, 2016. Republican nominee Donald Trump defeated Democratic former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the presidential election, while Republicans retained control of Congress. This marked the first and most recent time Republicans won or held unified control of the presidency and Congress since 2004 though they regained the House in the 2022 elections.
The 2024 United States elections are scheduled to be held, in large part, on Tuesday, November 5, 2024. During this presidential election year, the President of the United States and Vice President will be elected. In addition, all 435 seats in the United States House of Representatives and 34 of the 100 seats in the United States Senate will be contested to determine the membership of the 119th United States Congress. Thirteen state and territorial governorships and numerous other state and local elections will also be contested.
The 2018 New Hampshire Senate election was held on November 6, 2018, concurrently with the elections for the New Hampshire House of Representatives, to elect members to the 166th New Hampshire General Court. All 24 seats in the New Hampshire Senate were up for election. It resulted in Democrats gaining control of both chambers of the New Hampshire General Court, ending the total control of New Hampshire's state government, that Republicans had held in New Hampshire since the 2016 state elections.
New Hampshire state elections in 2018 were held on Tuesday, November 6, 2018, with the primary elections being held on June 5, 2018. Voters elected 2 members to the United States House of Representatives, the Governor of New Hampshire, all five members to the Executive Council, all 24 members to the New Hampshire Senate, and all 400 members to the New Hampshire House of Representatives, among other local elected offices.
New Hampshire state elections in 2016 were held on Tuesday, November 8, 2016. Voters elected 4 electors in the electoral college for President of the United States, one Senator in the United States Senate, 2 members to the United States House of Representatives, the Governor of New Hampshire, all five members to the Executive Council, all 24 members to the New Hampshire Senate, and all 400 members to the New Hampshire House of Representatives, among other local elected offices. The Democratic and Republican presidential primary were held on February 9, 2016, and the primary elections for all others offices were held on September 13, 2016.
State legislation related to the administration of elections introduced in 2011 through this year, 2020
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