Josh Rogers

In 2016, Steve Bullock won re-election as a Democrat in Montana, which is a state Donald Trump carried by 20 points.

He told the crowd who turned out to hear him in Manchester, at the Politics and Eggs speaking series, not to discount the need to appeal to voters who don't live on the coasts, people who live in places like Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.

In remarks Tuesday to the New England Council, a corporate group that typically steers a middle course politically, Gov. Chris Sununu said Democrats in Concord have embraced extremism and latched on to what he termed a clown car of presidential hopefuls.

New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker was back in New Hampshire today. He spoke at “Politics and Eggs” in Bedford, and he turned an event that’s typically on the staid end of the spectrum into something that at times sounded more like a campaign rally.

But afterward, when Booker spoke to reporters, he also confirmed that his campaign is teetering on the brink of financial viability. NHPR’s Josh Rogers joins me now to discuss that and this moment in the New Hampshire primary.

New Hampshire finally has a budget for the next two years.

Republican Governor Chris Sununu vetoed the $13.1 billion passed by the Democratically-controlled legislature in June, and the state's temporary spending plan was set to expire next week. 

The New Hampshire House and Senate are wrapping up their mostly-failed efforts to override dozens of vetoes handed down by Governor Chris Sununu. The record number of vetoes is one byproduct of having divided government in the state.

But there’s also an almost election-year atmosphere at the State House right now. That's not making it easier for lawmakers and the governor to reach agreement on a big job that’s still incomplete – passing a state budget.

Democrats have offered, and Governor Sununu has rejected, what Democratic state lawmakers are calling a compromise on the state budget. The budget process has been at an impasse since Sununu vetoed the budget passed by lawmakers earlier this year.

Republican Bill Weld rolled out the steering committee for his primary challenge to President Trump Tuesday in Concord.

The former Massachussetts Governor has the backing of some old-line Republicans.

New Hampshire Democrats – and nearly every candidate seeking their party’s nomination for president -- were in Manchester Saturday for the state Democratic convention.

Ruth Davis of Durham, who wore a button for Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, said seeing so many candidates up close would prompt many voters, even ones who think they’ve made up their minds, to reassess the field.

A third Republican has jumped into the 2020 race for U.S. Senate. Bryant "Corky" Messner of Wolfeboro, a military veteran and attorney, is pitching himself as a political outsider.

After a labor day weekend that saw another mass shooting, this time in Odessa Texas, gun policy is on the minds of many Democratic primary voters.

When Bernie Sanders spoke in Epsom Tuesday, his focus was healthcare, but when asked about guns by a member of the crowd, Sanders pledged to fight for universal background checks and to limit the availability of so-called assault weapons.

"More and more Americans - and I - certainly believe we should ban the sale and distribution of assault weapons," he said.

It's been seven weeks since the Executive Council voted on party lines to reject Governor Sununu's nomination of Attorney General Gordon MacDonald to be Chief Justice of New Hampshire's Supreme Court. And councilors say Governor Sununu hasn't indicated his plan to fill the vacancy to lead what is now a four member court.

Change versus restoration: it’s a key question, maybe the key question, facing Democrats as they ready themselves to pick a nominee to challenge President Trump.

That question was on the minds of many voters in New Hampshire this weekend as they welcomed a half dozen candidates, including two who put that question in stark relief: the most experienced Democrat running, former Vice President Joe Biden, and the youngest Democrat in the race, South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg. 

The New Hampshire Attorney General's office has released the first report required under the terms of its settlement with  St. Paul's School.  The Concord prep school reached an agreement with prosecutors last year stemming from decades-long allegations of sexual misconduct on campus.  

The report is the first St. Paul's will be subject to for five years under the settlement agreement. The report covers the first six months of 2019.

While late summer can be a quiet time on the presidential primary campaign trail, many Democratic candidates face a crucial test in the coming days: either qualify for the next round of televised debates, or risk losing relevance. 

That urgency was on display as candidates made the rounds this weekend in New Hampshire.

Judge Joseph Laplante says a challenge to New Hampshire's new voter residency law can move forward, and he rejected an effort to remove Secretary of State Bill Gardner as a defendant in the case.

Gov. Chris Sununu has vetoed his 39th and 40th bills of the year. These bills aim to undo recent election law changes backed by the GOP.

Related: Click here for our veto tracker, which is detailing bills vetoed by Governor Chris Sununu

One bill, HB 105, aims to repeal the law known as Senate Bill 3.

Concord State Senator Dan Feltes says he’s strongly considering a run for Governor and will make a final decision by summer’s end.

In a Medium post Feltes sent to potential supporters, he said, “The major roadblock to meaningful, inclusive progress for New Hampshire is one person: Governor Chris Sununu.”

Feltes and Sununu have clashed repeatedly on issues including the state budget, paid family leave, taxes and election law.

Feltes serves as Majority Leader in the State Senate, and before joining the senate he was a legal aid lawyer.

Governor Chris Sununu rallied Republicans on July 4th by playing auctioneer and selling off memorabilia of a veto.

At a time when the governor says he's eager to reach common ground with Democrats on the state budget, his message at a Republican breakfast in Wolfeboro was a departure.

"This is the veto of Senate Bill 1. You guys know what Senate Bill 1 was," Sununu said. 

What Sununu was selling was a copy of his veto message against paid family leave.

Local health care providers facing the loss of federal money beacuse of Trump administration rules on abortion say their patients will be hurt by the state budget impasse.

Top Democratic budget writers say that’s one reason they want a quick resolution with Governor Sununu, who vetoed their budget last week.

Governor Sununu says his current goals for the budget have less to do with how money might get spent than with ensuring the spending levels are sustainable under the state's current tax structure.   

"Pretty much all the funding initiatives I wanted to go forward with, I'm willing to let them take that off the table, that's fine.

But my responsibility is to make sure we don't put ourselves in a financial hole. Their budget would do that." 

Executive Councilor Andru Volinsky is taking a step closer to running for governor.  The Concord Democrat has announced a list of 175 people who are backing his potential campaign.

Volinsky's announcement comes months after he privately emailed political supporters to say that a gubernatorial run was likely.

It also follows a solid fundraising period that left the 63-year-old lawyer with $125,000 in his campaign account.

Gov. Chris Sununu has vetoed a two-year state budget crafted and passed by Democrats in the Legislature saying the plan threatens New Hampshre's economic growth.