Policy can take a backseat to politics in Concord in any election year. But at a time when pressing issues like the cost of housing and the shortage of affordable childcare are putting many Granite Staters in a financial bind, 2024 is already shaping up to be a State House year dominated more by hot-button national issues than local concerns.
Take, for instance, legislative debates in recent weeks over the rights of transgender people. No new laws dealing with sex or gender have been enacted yet this year, but their debate is already producing fallout. Last week, Meredith state Rep. Matthew Coker switched his party affiliation from Democrat to Republican, citing votes on bills involving gender to justify his decision.
Safety concerns, meanwhile, prompted House leaders to assign Peterborough Democratic Rep. Jonah Wheeler, a new seat in Representatives Hall after he angered his own party by voting to ban gender-affirming surgery for minors.
Tense testimony and floor votes over these issues have played out steadily since lawmakers kicked off 2024, and that’s despite the demographic reality that these bills would directly affect few people, said Rep. Gerri Cannon, a Democrat from Somersworth and one of the first openly transgender lawmakers elected anywhere in the country.
While precise statistics on the population of transgender youth aren’t available, Cannon said that the focus on a relatively small community — especially when it comes to transgender youths in sports — seems overblown and reflects national politics more than day-to-day life in New Hampshire.
“I think sometimes we lose sight of what’s reality,” Cannon said.
Manchester Republican Ross Berry’s background in politics — he’s worked for the state Republican Party and as a campaign operative for years — has conditioned him to see partisan friction, including local debates driven by national issues, as inevitable. But Berry says that dynamic is especially pronounced this year.
“There are definitely battle lines being drawn in areas where you don’t normally see them,” Berry said. “Definitely with the more divided House, it started at a higher tenor than it normally would and it’s working its way up.”
Immigration policy is a case in point. Republicans in Concord, from Gov. Chris Sununu on down, stress the need to tighten the state’s northern border. Illegal crossings there are regularly invoked as a “crisis.”
But federal data recently obtained by the ACLU show that U.S. Border Patrol agents encountered just 21 people making illegal crossings from October 2022 through December 2023. But that’s done nothing to slow the GOP push for immigration bills to outlaw sanctuary cities in New Hampshire and make it illegal for undocumented people who have out-of-state drivers licenses to drive here.
Deputy House Speaker Steve Smith, a Republican, says he agrees that immigration is a legitimate policy for New Hampshire lawmakers to consider, but also worries it’s a distraction from the kind of things state reps should focus on.
“Like, border security,” Smith said. “OK, so they sent some money and resources up there. But what we do is things that touch your life: How hard is it to do something in your own backyard without a permit? How hard is it to get your car inspected? That’s the best thing that we do.”
Manchester Democratic Rep. Jackie Chretien doesn’t share Smith’s politics, but she agrees that the more lawmakers train their focus on basic state issues — the matters constituents face every day — the better chance they have of getting things done that could improve people’s lives.
“The more time we spend on these culture war issues, the less time we can spend on issues like housing and childcare that really matter to everybody, and where maybe we do have bipartisan consensus,” said Chretien.
It may take some bipartisan consensus — a scarce commodity in an election year — to even try to reach it.
