Ahead of the general election on Nov. 3, NHPR is sitting down with some third-party and independent candidates on the ballot.
Robbie Mahrou, an entrepreneur and consultant from Walpole, is an independent candidate for the state’s 2nd Congressional District.
Mahrou spoke with NHPR’s All Things Considered host Julia Barnett about his campaign and his top priorities.
Find all of our 2026 election coverage here.
Transcript
This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.
Over the past two decades or so, no independent or third-party candidate has received more than 5% of the vote. It's an uphill battle to win outside of the two-party system. Why did you decide to run?
Well, I think there's two questions in there. Why did I decide to run? I think it's fairly obvious, at least for me. Seeing the construct of where we are as a country right now, seeing the candidates that were available and seeing the system in place, I felt like I had to run as an independent in order to make sure the messaging that I wanted out, would get out. And I don't think you can do that within that two-party framework.
Do you feel that there's support behind this? You got well over the number of signatures needed to get onto the ballot.
Absolute support. There is support from the handshakes that we had — we probably shook well over 5,000 hands to get here. I don't even know that there's another candidate in this state that actually shook that many — with the exception of an independent — who's out there shaking hands regardless of political party.
So I think that in and of itself shows that that grassroots support that exists when it's not just, “Hey, will you vote for me?” But “Hey, will you put your name, address and voter information down on this piece of paper to act as a petition in order to get on the ballot?” I think that is extraordinarily powerful, and I think it's being overlooked.
If elected as a new member of Congress, what issues do you want to prioritize?
Well, number one, we have to get back to constitutional integrity. I think that's one. I think that that's the low hanging fruit, the lowest hanging fruit that we could possibly go after.
After that, you have to get into affordability. I released a new tax plan on my website that basically cuts into affordability and takes the concept of trickle-down economics and turns it upside down on its head to make it more of a trickle-up philosophy.
Realistically, how would you work alongside your colleagues in Congress to accomplish your goals?
I think this is the cool part. Like, in all honesty, because our district, [Congressional] District 2, is no different than many around the U.S. So instead of looking at it from the standpoint of what party you can caucus with or that type of philosophy that's been in existence for a long time, you can look at it more from the standpoint of, what other districts around the country are facing the same issues that we are in District 2? And there's plenty of them.
So being able to have that alignment, I think, is very important to act as a fulcrum in order to create that equilibrium that's necessary in order to push policy that matters for direct representation, which is what I'm shooting for.
To go a little deeper on that, Congress is dominated by Republicans and Democrats. Do you feel you can find common ground even if you don't share a party affiliation?
Absolutely. And I think what you just said is, it's so split, it's so divided. There is no vast majority that exists, which means independent votes probably count more than an individual party vote because you can't count on it. Which means when it comes back to direct representation for the district, there's more likely a case for that to happen with an independent as opposed to somebody within a party who's actually kind of voting and toeing the party lines.
What are you hoping to accomplish or say with this campaign?
Well, I think we're saying a lot right now. And I think we're matching the consensus of the state. 40% of the state is undeclared. The two major parties, Republicans and Democrats right now, are running a 60% un-approval or unfavorable rating in the state. So our campaign and what we're doing, speaking directly to the people as opposed to a national party, I think is resonating in a very, very real way.
