The race for state Senate District 24 features a contentious rematch .
Republican Sen. Dan Innis is defending his seat against Democrat Tom Sherman, a former state representative. But even amid a polarized national conversation, neither candidate seems eager to play up partisanship.
On a bright fall Monday two weeks before Election Day, Innis is squeezing in lunch on the go.
“I better not eat this," he says, stashing his half-eaten protein bar in his pocket.
Innis is heading out for a day on the campaign trail in Greenland. He says he tried to make time for food before this, but: “On the way I made two stops to try to get some good sign locations and the folks that I met wanted to talk," he says. "So power bar it is. Do what you gotta do.”
Innis, a professor and former dean at the UNH business school, is District 24's first-term Republican state senator. He’s campaigning against the same Democrat he beat for this seat two years ago – local doctor and former state representative Tom Sherman.
This district covers the southeastern-most corner of the state, including wealthy beachside communities like Rye and Hampton, and working-class towns like Seabrook.
It leans only slightly Republican, and the 2016 state senate race here turned on just 1,500 votes. So this year, both the state Republican and Democratic parties have stepped up their attack ads to try and win.
Republican mailers say Sherman missed key votes while in the House. The Democrats counter that Innis doesn’t attend important committee meetings.
Innis says he doesn’t relish all the rhetoric.
“Once the negativity starts, it starts to snowball," he says. "But the voters will tell you that they really care about your message and the positive side of things.”
So when Innis knocks on voters' doors, he tries to focus on what he can do for them in Concord. Today he's in a neighborhood just a mile from a former landfill - now the Coakley Superfund site - that's raised concerns about local contamination.
It's given voters like Erin Williams a clear priority.
"Probably right now it would be the water, considering where we live," she tells Innis. "Well, you know where I am on that," Innis says, telling her he sponsored a bill last session to set new limits on the chemicals at Coakley that may threaten neighbors’ water.
He says he plans to keep pushing for clean-up this year.
Innis’s opponent, Tom Sherman, has also been a vocal advocate for Coakley clean-up. It’s among the issues he talks about when canvassing in places like Hampton.
Sherman is a gastroenterologist who served in the state House of Representatives from 2012 to 2016, before running unsuccessfully against Innis for the District 24 seat two years ago.
Both candidates lean heavily on their professional backgrounds to shape their campaigns. Innis, the hotel owner and business professor, talks up his work to make the state more business-friendly. Sherman's career in medicine means he focused on health policy in the House and talks about it often on the campaign trail. And neither candidate is making a big deal about his party affiliation.
For Sherman, like Innis, it's about forging personal connections with undecided voters like Charles Baker.
Baker is a lobsterman who jumps on the first issue that comes up as he chats with Sherman in his front yard in Hampton.
“The opioid crisis - I’ve lost more people than I care to think of," Baker says.
"And the kind of medicine I practice, I take care of people who are sober now," Sherman starts, before elaborating on his legislative work to tighten state prescription rules.
Sherman and Baker talk for nearly 15 minutes about drug use on fishing boats and rising health care costs that Baker says he can’t afford. As he walks away, Sherman makes a note to follow up about Baker's concerns.
He says that's where local politicians can actually have an impact.
"And it's not about the federal government, it's not about what's happening in Washington for the most part, but it's really about what's happening in our homes and our communities," he says.
Dan Innis is also trying hard to make that case to voters. "You find that people aren’t that engaged oftentimes with state-level politics," he says. "But I would argue, races like this are more important to their daily life than the Congressional race or U.S. Senate races.”
He and Sherman hope focusing on the local and the personal will present voters with a clear choice on Election Day.
