This story was originally produced by the New Hampshire Bulletin, an independent local newsroom that allows NHPR and other outlets to republish its reporting.
New Hampshire House Republicans failed to override a string of vetoes by Gov. Kelly Ayotte Wednesday, after a muted session that previewed disagreements within the party heading into 2026.
In vote after vote, the House fell short of the two-thirds requirement to override Ayotte’s vetoes. They failed to push through bills to allow separation of bathrooms by biological sex, ease the process of removing books from schools, and mandate the viewing of fetal development videos in school health classes.
For Republicans, the day was a challenge from the beginning; holding just 55% of the seats in the House, they needed significant Democratic support to succeed in any one override. But the day also provided litmus tests for House Republicans at a time when President Donald Trump and national conservative advocates have taken forceful stances against transgender rights, and Ayotte, a Republican, has carved a more moderate path.
The fight is not over. Many of the hot-button bills, like those centered on school book removals and gender bathroom separation, are returning in some form in 2026. And Republicans say the vetoes will not stop them from advocating for the legislation on the campaign trail next year.
But for all the controversy tailing the legislation outside of the State House, little of it was evident on the House floor Wednesday. The chamber held debates on a handful of bills, but decided to plow through most of them without debate.
The most extensive discussion surrounded transgender access to bathrooms. House Bill 148 would allow businesses and other entities to separate locker rooms, bathrooms, and sports teams by biological sex, and would allow similar separation in jails, juvenile detention centers, mental health hospitals, or “like facilities.”
Rep. Jim Kofalt, a Wilton Republican, said the bill was intended to protect cisgender women and girls against potential sexual assault.
There is no statistical evidence of that risk; a February UCLA study found no difference in safety and privacy violations in gender inclusive and gender non-inclusive bathrooms, while a Harvard review of survey data found transgender youth face a larger risk of sexual assault when required to use bathrooms that don’t correspond to their gender identity.
Kofalt noted the bill does not mandate businesses and organizations to separate their facilities by biological sex, but argued the bill is necessary to give them legal cover if they want to.
“Our current law is one-sided,” he said. “Our current law does nothing to accommodate the physical and psychological safety of women and girls.”
Democrats argued the bill is “clearly meant to target the transgender population” and would allow businesses to interrogate customers over their biological sex, violating privacy.
In a speech, Rep. Alice Wade, a Dover Democrat who is transgender, announced she would be reading a list of transgender people who were targeted and killed or died by suicide in the past year. Several Republican representatives groaned.
After about four minutes of the list, two representatives attempted to prevent Wade from continuing. Deputy Speaker Steven Smith ruled against both attempts. “I know that I have stood at the well and said many things that people wished I wasn’t saying,” he said. “That doesn’t negate my right to say it.” The House later formally voted to allow Wade to continue.
“If my words can’t get through to you, I hope their names stick with you every time these bills come up,” Wade said. “For transgender people, this damage is not theoretical. Our identities are not masks we can put on and take off. This is our lives.”
The House voted, 188-165, to override the veto, with 53.3% voting to do so, short of the required two-thirds.
Another debated bill, House Bill 667 would have required public school health classes to include a video or animation of a fetus.
The sponsor of that bill, Rep. John Sellers, a Bristol Republican, said in a speech that showing the development of a fetus would allow teenagers to make better health decisions later in life by avoiding substances like alcohol, tobacco, and drugs.
“We all want to support women by empowering them with knowledge to enhance their reproductive decisions,” Sellers said. “That’s what this video would do.”
But Rep. Muriel Hall, a Bow Democrat, raised concerns that the video might not be scientifically accurate and that the video favored by Sellers had an anti-abortion bias. “That is not an appropriate role for the state to be mandating such requirements,” Hall said.
The House failed to override Ayotte’s veto, 159-190.
Some bills highlighted broader disagreement between Ayotte and conservatives over how to rein in local property taxes.
House Bill 319 would have exempted school districts offering half-day kindergarten from the requirement to provide transportation for those kindergarteners. Rep Keith Ammon, a New Boston Republican, said the bill was designed to eliminate an “unfunded mandate” and give school districts more local control over transportation. In her veto message, Ayotte said the bill would “place an undue burden on working families.” The House voted, 182-173, to override the veto, winning just 51.3% of the vote.
Republicans also attempted to override Ayotte’s veto of House Bill 475, which would have required that when towns adopt “default budgets” — budgets that exist as fallbacks when voters reject the select board’s preferred budget at town meeting — any positions that have sat vacant for one year will be automatically eliminated.
Rep. Diane Pauer, a Brookline Republican, said the goal of the bill was “eliminating avoidable taxation.” But Democratic Rep. Jim Maggiore, of North Hampton, said the bill would put a “stranglehold on hiring” in towns because it would prevent police and fire departments from keeping positions open amid statewide workforce challenges. The override vote was 178-175.
A couple of bills were less controversial Wednesday. The House voted, 347-1, to uphold Ayotte’s veto of House Bill 115, which would have created a continuing resolution to keep the state government funded back in June. And just 28 lawmakers voted to override the veto of House Bill 781, which would have created an alternative, less strict version of Ayotte’s preferred “bell-to-bell” public school cell phone ban, which passed in June.
Meanwhile, the House sidestepped debate entirely over a number of bills. Without discussion, the body voted, 183-167, or 52.3%, to override the veto of House Bill 324, which would have public schools adopt a process to allow parents to remove books deemed obscene; 177-174 on House Bill 356, the bill to allow partisan school board elections; 176-175 on House Bill 358, the bill to simplify applications for religious exemptions to school vaccine requirements; 181-170, or 51.6%, on House Bill 446, the bill to require parents to opt-in to non academic surveys like the Youth Risk Behavior Survey; 150-201 on House Bill 613, which would have allowed towns to choose to not provide accessible voting machines in local elections if they were not requested by a voter at least 60 days before the election.
As they emerged over the summer, Ayotte’s vetoes angered some in the conservative wing of the party. On Wednesday, Ammon said he understood the governor’s motives even if he didn’t agree.
“She’s a little more cautious than I would have been, but I understand that she’s more aware of her political calculations than I am,” he said.
Ammon said his conservative constituents have advocated action around allowing gender separated bathrooms, and said the issues would return to the Legislature no matter what.
One bill filed for next year, Senate Bill 434, would require a formal complaint process about material deemed harmful to minors in public school; another, House Bill 1447, would allow businesses to separate bathrooms by biological sex and would require state entities to do so.
“It’s a bit of a cultural battle happening,” Ammon said. “And I think the other side started it.”
House Democratic Leader Alexis Simpson, of Exeter, welcomed the votes Wednesday to sustain the vetoes, but similarly noted that the debates will return soon. “We’ll continue to fight for our values and our positions,” she said in an interview.
Still, Simpson predicted that the “culture war” issues would not be top of mind for voters in 2026.
“We feel very strongly that Granite Staters are concerned about the cost of living,” she said. “And we will continue to work hard to lower costs for Granite Staters.”
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