Gov. Kelly Ayotte enters her second year in the corner office having made good on a range of promises: Under her watch, the state stiffened its bail law and outlawed sanctuary policies in New Hampshire cities and towns. She and the Republican-controlled Legislature enacted a state budget that included no new taxes — though it did have many fee hikes. Ayotte and fellow Republicans also expanded the state’s voucher-like school choice program, imposed copays on people insured through Medicaid, and required state agency leaders to find millions of dollars in unspecified savings.
As she marks the midpoint of her first two-year term, Ayotte is looking ahead to more uncertain terrain. But while 2026 is likely to pose political challenges for Republicans nationally, Ayotte lacks any obvious barrier to reelection at the moment, and she seems poised to continue on the low-risk, low-drama approach she followed in her first year as the state’s chief executive.
Here’s a look back at the highlights of Ayotte’s first year in office, and a look ahead at what the next 12 months might hold for her politically.
A focus on public safety
A former state attorney general who often highlights her background as a “murder prosecutor,” Ayotte has made support for law enforcement a calling card of her leadership style. Her first move as governor was naming former Hillsborough County Sheriff Chris Connelly as her chief of staff. Enacting new bail restrictions for people charged with serious crimes was one early policy push; outlawing municipal “sanctuary” policies for undocumented immigrants was another. Ayotte also backed the state police’s move to enter into an agreement with ICE to allow New Hampshire troopers to join federal immigration enforcement actions.
But Ayotte’s pursuit of her public safety goals has at times produced friction with fellow Republicans. It nearly derailed the state budget process last spring, after Ayotte said she’d veto any spending plan that didn’t earmark millions of dollars to boost pensions for public safety workers who lost benefits more than a decade ago.
Ayotte also pushed to give the executive branch a stronger say in state efforts to compensate victims of abuse at the state youth detention center. In 2022, lawmakers earmarked $100 million for a victims fund at the urging of Attorney General John Formella. So far, the state has spent $220 million to resolve more than 400 claims, with hundreds of claims still unresolved. While the state’s long-term liabilities could climb to more than a billion dollars, Ayotte looked to tighten control over payouts. She worked with lawmakers to push out the fund’s independent administrator — former Supreme Court Chief Justice John Broderick — and give the New Hampshire Attorney General the power to block any settlement agreement.
Filling key state roles
Ousting Broderick wasn't Ayotte’s only decisive personnel move. In July, Ayotte replaced Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut — a longtime conservative lightning rod — with Caitlin Davis, a career state education department staffer with a nonpartisan reputation. A month later, Ayotte made a different sort of choice when she tapped attorney Bryan Gould, an outspoken conservative who spent decades representing Republican political clients, to join the state’s highest court.
Ayotte will soon have other jobs to fill, including those leading state economic development and cultural resources.
She also has to deal with lawmakers — something most every New Hampshire governor would admit can be a challenge in the best of times. In laying out her plans for the coming legislative session, Ayotte has set a modest vision.
Speaking to reporters Wednesday, Ayotte identified a few specific policy goals. She said she could back a bill to make state roads safer by tightening drunk driving laws. She said she hoped to bolster the state’s childcare system and boost the housing supply, but offered no specifics on either front. At the same time, Ayotte also cautioned against moving too fast on any bill this year.
“I’m certainly open to new pieces of legislation, but let’s make sure what we did is working well,” Ayotte said.
Balancing the state’s books
Fiscal management could test Ayotte in the coming months.
The first days of this year’s legislative session were filled with debates over core issues of school funding and taxation. Lawmakers rejected efforts to spend what the New Hampshire Supreme Court has ruled it they need to in order to provide the state’s students with an "adequate education,” and they passed a bill that would further reduce a key state business tax, a policy Ayotte has not endorsed.
Ayotte has mostly avoided weighing in on specific proposals Republicans in the House and Senate are pushing to crimp local spending and make it harder to raise taxes in Concord. But she’s stopped well short of ruling anything out.
“I will say this, I do think there has to be accountability at every level to taxpayers,” Ayotte said.
For Ayotte, that accountability will almost certainly require making good on ambitious targets included in the state budget that require agency heads to find some $70 million in unspecified savings.
“That’s something I’ve been working on since the moment the budget passed,” Ayotte said. “The Executive Branch will meet its budget.”
National politics, and Trump, could complicate reelection
While Ayotte has yet to say she’s running for re-election this year, almost every New Hampshire governor seeks — and wins — a second term.
Right now, Ayotte’s lone declared challenger is Democrat Jon Kiper, a self-styled outsider candidate who placed third in the 2024 Democratic primary. Kiper himself has said beating Ayotte is a longshot hope, and Ayotte’s biggest political challenge as she seeks another two years may not be Kiper — or any other Democrat who ends up running. 2026 is expected to be a tough year for Republicans nationally. And while Ayotte has worked to decouple her political agenda and identity from the Trump administration, success on that front could get more complicated as November approaches.
