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Meet New Hampshire’s next Kid Governor

NH Kid Governor-elect Jade Adams poses with her dog Marley. Jade ran on the platform that New Hampshire should ban animal testing.
Katey Adams
/
Courtesy Photo
NH Kid Governor-elect Jade Adams poses with her dog Marley. Jade ran on the platform that New Hampshire should ban animal testing.

Last week, New Hampshire swore in a new governor. Later this month, the state will also have a new Kid Governor.

10 year-old Jade Adams was elected by her peers in November. She’s a fifth-grader at Wells Memorial School in Harrisville. She’ll be sworn in, along with the six-member Kid Executive Council, on Jan. 28.

Each year, fifth-graders across New Hampshire vote for a kid governor. The program began in 2018 and is led by NH Civics and the NH Institute of Politics. It’s an affiliate of a national Kid Governor program created by the Connecticut Democracy Center.

Jade joined NHPR’s All Things Considered host Julia Furukawa to talk about her campaign process, her platform and what she’s looking forward to in her new role.

Transcript

So Jade, you ran on the platform that New Hampshire should ban animal testing. What inspired you to speak out about this issue?

Last year, I kind of researched it a little bit and I felt really passionate about it. I realized how [animal testing] is not really good. And so I just wanted to help it.

Jade shows off the back of a shirt she made. She says those are hands and paws of the animals that are most commonly tested on.
Julia Furukawa
/
NHPR
Jade shows off the back of a shirt she made. She says those are hands and paws of the animals that are most commonly tested on.

Let's talk about your campaign experience. When did you start campaigning and when did you know, ‘this is something I want to do?’

When my teacher told us about [the] kid governor [program] and how we had to pick a community issue, I remembered all my research last year and I knew how it was wrong. I thought, I want to continue that. I want that to be the thing to be banned.

Well, I feel like some people might say that's a lot of work, doing this whole campaign. Why did you decide, ‘I'm motivated enough to do this?’

Well, I just felt like if somebody can do it, I probably can too.

That's a great attitude. You won the primary at your school, and then your entire class jumped in and they supported you in your campaign. What was it like to work with your friends and see them support you?

After I won for my school—my teacher [has] done this for a while so she knew exactly what she wanted us to do. Everybody in my class had a job, like one person was the director, one person was my director, one person was the writer, and [there were] editors and the filmers. But they were really happy.

It sounds like your teacher was a big support through this process.

Yeah, my teacher was probably my biggest supporter because she's been doing this for like a lot of years, and I'm her first kid to win. She's just really proud of me.

So what are you looking forward to most as kid governor?

I'm looking forward to becoming a better public speaker, having a lot of speeches to do and going through my platform.

Tell me about your platform.

My platform is to make New Hampshire the 13th state to ban animal testing. I have a three-point plan to solve all of it. My first thing is to encourage kids to buy cruelty-free items in New Hampshire and have a blog to tell people why they should buy cruelty-free products and why it's wrong.

My second platform is to have a letter writing campaign to flood the governor's office with letters to make a difference and stop animal testing.

Three, I will travel to New Hampshire schools and give speeches to educate students on buying cruelty-free products, about animal cruelty and how animals should be treated. I will also make videos to share on the New Hampshire Kid Governor and the New Hampshire Civics social media about how animals should be treated and how people can help ban animal testing.

Anyone you want to thank?

I want to thank my teacher, my classmates, my family members and friends and all the animals around me.

You can find Jade Adams’ campaign video here.

As the All Things Considered producer, my goal is to bring different voices on air, to provide new perspectives, amplify solutions, and break down complex issues so our listeners have the information they need to navigate daily life in New Hampshire. I also want to explore how communities and the state can work to—and have worked to—create solutions to the state’s housing crisis.
As the host of All Things Considered, I work to hold those in power accountable and elevate the voices of Granite Staters who are changemakers in their community, and make New Hampshire the unique state it is. What questions do you have about the people who call New Hampshire home?
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