March 17, 2025, 5:15 p.m.
New Hampshire currently hosts its nominating contest on Sept. 10, a tradition that has kept the stress of politics out of the sacred summer vacation months. This year, state lawmakers are considering two options that could push primary day to June or August, thanks to a change in the governor’s mansion.
Though over the years, lawmakers have toyed with moving the date, those efforts have not come to fruition, due in part to former Republican Gov. Chris Sununu’s resistance. Sununu said the August date created “more problems than it solves.” Now, New Hampshire politicos who spoke to National Journal say newly minted Republican Gov. Kelly Ayotte has signaled her preference for shifting the calendar to June, giving the effort a renewed push.
“Sununu had his position, and many people agreed with his sentiment,” GOP strategist and New Hampshire native Matthew Bartlett told National Journal. “Yet the practicality of the issue—I think most people recognize that the world has changed, politics has changed, and so has the primary.”
"Everyone wants to move it,” said Republican state Rep. Ross Berry, chair of the House Election Law Committee, which is spearheading this legislation in the lower chamber. “I haven't met a single person that wants to keep it where it is, but no one can agree on where to put it. And the thing is, only one person has the veto pen, right?”
Berry has long advocated for moving the primary date. Critics like Berry say the late primary benefits incumbents, often hamstringing challenger nominees' ability to campaign effectively.
“New Hampshire’s late primary is nothing more than an incumbent protection program,” GOP strategist Derek Dufresne told National Journal in a statement. Dufresne, a co-founder of Ascent Strategic and consultant for multiple New Hampshire congressional nominees, said that under the current system, “the nominee is often bruised, underfunded, and left with little time to make their case to voters.”
In 2024, only 56 days separated the primary and the general election. Extending that time frame would allow candidates to better connect with voters and refill their coffers.
The challenges the September primary posed were on display in the bruising Democratic gubernatorial primary last year between former executive councilor Cinde Warmington and the eventual nominee, former Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig. The costly primary was bitter to the very end, with the candidates trading at times personal attacks. Former state Democratic Party Chair Kathy Sullivan suggested that an earlier primary could have made it easier for Craig to rebound in the competitive general election against Ayotte, whose primary was much sleepier.
"There's only a finite amount of money, and you hate to see it spent on a competitive primary, as opposed to using it for the general-election race,” Sullivan said.
The late primary can also present logistical challenges for the major spenders in Washington. Committees and super PACs often reserve much of their TV spending early in the cycle to get a cheaper rate. Official campaign committees typically stay out of competitive primaries, allowing the incumbents to stack cash while several candidates split the donor pool or don’t have a strong pipeline in D.C. to help them raise funds.
Two GOP operatives, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, said it feels like national organizations often overlook New Hampshire because of the late primary, and races have often developed elsewhere.
Such was the case in 2024, when Russell Prescott, the GOP nominee in the 1st Congressional District, emerged from a seven-way primary with just 2,000 votes separating him from the third-place finisher. In the last few GOP primaries in the 1st Congressional District, the state’s most competitive, GOP candidates have struggled to rebound after bruising primaries.
“If you don’t have that amount of time, it is very difficult to overcome the advantages of incumbency,” Prescott said. “You never do have the opportunity to overcome … to just remove their incumbency advantage, but certainly a longer time in a general election would allow for a more level playing field.”
Some Democrats told National Journal a change in procedure won’t help Republicans crack the Granite State’s all-Democrat delegation.
“The problem for Republicans has not been the primary date; it’s been candidate quality,” said Lucas Meyer, a New Hampshire Democratic strategist and former campaign staffer for Rep. Chris Pappas. “So even if they move the primary up, those very radical primary candidates are going to keep making it through and just make themselves more unpopular by Election Day.”
New Hampshire Republicans have nominated more-conservative candidates in recent cycles—including Don Bolduc, Bob Burns, and now-White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt—who have tanked their chances at flipping competitive seats.
If the primary date is successfully moved, Republican Secretary of State David Scanlan would be tasked with navigating the change as the state’s chief elections officer. In an interview with National Journal, Scanlan admitted there have been definite challenges with the September date, particularly the tight window between the primary and when federal law requires the state to send out absentee ballots to military and overseas voters.
Scanlan prefers the August option but would not be opposed to June. But moving up the date doesn’t come without potential challenges. Scanlan’s No. 1 concern is the impact on voter turnout, given that June involves the end of the school year and August is a prime vacation month.
“Whichever month it would end up being in, there would have to be a significant effort put in place to just inform the voters that this change has been made … and hopefully we can keep the turnout levels as high as they've been in the past,” Scanlan said.
If lawmakers pass a bill to move the primary date, it would be in place for the 2026 elections. Looking ahead, the benefits and challenges of the change could be put to the test, with potentially competitive primaries on the horizon.
“We've got two Democratic congressmembers, and if one or both of them decide to jump into the Senate race, we're going to have three primaries going, and that's a lot,” Sullivan said. “So yeah, it might be nice to have the additional time.”
