Tuesday’s election may have just ended, but another key race is already starting to ramp up: that for New Hampshire Secretary of State.
Secretary of State David Scanlan, who has held the job since 2022, says he’s running for another two-year term. The position is elected by a vote of the full membership of the New Hampshire House and Senate at the start of each new legislative session in December.
Scanlan is a Republican who served as New Hampshire House majority leader more than 20 years ago. Like his longtime predecessor in the job — Democrat Bill Gardner — Scanlan has largely downplayed his partisan background as he’s led the department.
But after this week's landslide election, which delivered huge Democratic majorities in both chambers of the Legislature, a number of Democrats are considering challenging Scanlan. Beating him would have been a tall order had Republicans maintained control in Concord. But Democrats are now expected to hold close to 300 seats in the 400-member House and a clear majority in the 24-member Senate next year — meaning the odds for electing a secretary of state with a clear Democratic pedigree improved vastly. And some say they like the idea of the Secretary of State job serving as a prominent post for ambitious Democrats looking to climb the political ladder.
While Scanlan has avoided overt expressions of partisan leanings in office, Democrats have criticized some of his moves, including his support for Republican-backed efforts to tighten state voting requirements.
Scanlan’s backers note that he has publicly defied the Trump administration's efforts to exert more control over state officials, including his refusal to hand over state voter roll information to the Trump Department of Justice.
A growing list of potential challengers
Those eying runs include Democratic legislators, ex-legislators, and former congressional candidates.
“There are six people that I know of,” said Sarah Chadzynski, a non-profit director who lives in Lyndeborough and finished fifth in the Democratic primary for the 1st Congressional District this year. “I was asked to consider it.”
Carleigh Beriont, who leads Hampton’s Select Board and also ran for Congress this year, is also thinking about shooting for Secretary of State.
“I have heard from a number of elected Democrats and party leaders that I should consider running,” Beriont said in a statement to NHPR. “I’m definitely giving it serious thought!”
Hopkinton State Rep. James Newsom, who sits on the House Election Law Committee, has also confirmed he may run, as has Manchester House member Patrick Long and former state Senate President Donna Soucy. The names of other New Hampshire Democrats are also being bandied about on social media.
‘It’s important to have someone fair’
But not everyone who operates in Democratic party circles is sanguine at the prospect of putting a partisan — or someone seen as one — in the office that oversees state elections.
“The last thing you want to do is create a situation where this job bounces back and forth with every election,” said Paul Twomey, a lawyer who often represents Democrats in election law matters.
Twomey says he doesn’t always agree with Scanlan but considers him honest: “It’s important to have someone who is seen as fair to both sides running elections.”
The office of Secretary of State is multifaceted. Its most prominent job is to oversee all voting matters in the state, and secretaries often weigh in on proposed changes to election regulations in the Legislature. But the office also regulates securities and risk pools, administers business registrations, and oversees the state archive.
The office, and whoever leads it, takes on increased prominence during presidential primary years, where the secretary performs the ministerial role of personally accepting candidate paperwork in what have become ritualized proceedings during the primary’s candidate filing period.
The Secretary of State has also historically played a crucial role in ensuring that voters here cast the first presidential primary ballots every four years. State law requires New Hampshire to hold the first primary and gives the Secretary of State full authority to set the date. But national Democrats have announced a nominating calendar for the 2028 cycle that would have South Carolina and Nevada hold their primaries before New Hampshire.
Scanlan has vowed to ensure that New Hampshire maintains its leadoff primary, regardless of what national Democratic leaders say.
For decades, the Secretary of State job has been an island of political stability in an often tumultuous State House. Prior to Scanlan, Bill Gardner held the job for nearly half a century, with few challengers. The most serious challenge came in 2018, when Democrat Colin Van Ostern ran against Gardner on a platform of ensuring “free and fair” elections. Van Ostern fell short of winning the job after a series of close votes before the full Legislature.
