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Craig vs. Ayotte in the NH governor's race debate: 5 takeaways

Posted on by Vanessa
Craig vs. Ayotte in the NH governor's race debate: 5 takeaways

MANCHESTER – Democrat Joyce Craig and Republican Kelly Ayotte clashed Thursday in a debate over New Hampshire's gubernatorial candidates in the city at the center of the race.

The Greater Manchester Chamber hosted the debate at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics in Manchester, where Craig was mayor from January 2018 to January 2024. The way Craig ran the city has been the focus of many Republican attacks on Craig, who has tried to showcase her accomplishments as mayor.

Polls show the race will be very close. It is the most competitive gubernatorial election in the country as Democrats seek to retake the corner post held by Republican Gov. Chris Sununu since 2016. Ayotte, who was a U.S. senator from 2011 to 2017, has told voters that Sununu is the model for how she would govern.

More: Ayotte and Craig are raising and spending record millions on the New Hampshire gubernatorial election

Moderated by Scott Spradling, the two candidates took on business-related questions developed by Chamber members.

Here are five takeaways from the debate:

Manchester takes center stage, with Ayotte in attack and Craig saying attacks are damaging to the city

Ayotte used the city of Manchester as the focus of many of her attacks on Craig throughout the year, highlighting homelessness and drug use in the city.

She led the attack in her opening statement, repeating her oft-said statement: “We cannot afford to let Joyce Craig do to New Hampshire what she did to Manchester.”

Speaking to Manchester business people, Spradling asked about the possible long-term effects of negative press.

Craig criticized Ayotte for painting the city in a negative light.

“I'm proud of this community, but Kelly Ayotte has spent the entire campaign portraying Manchester as a terrible place and that is completely unacceptable. “It's hurting our community, it's hurting our businesses and it puts Manchester in the wrong light said Craig. “We need a governor who is focused on strengthening every single community in our state, and that is my goal.”

Ayotte argued her ads showed what “happened under the leadership, or lack of leadership, of Joyce Craig.” Under her term as governor, Ayotte said she will be a partner to Mayor Jay Ruais and help with the homelessness and substance abuse crises, as well as the economy.

Craig responded with her successes in Manchester, saying she helped reduce violent crime and opioid overdoses while creating one of the “hottest job markets.”

Taxes are a point of contention

“The Pledge” has long been a litmus test for New Hampshire politicians: Unless they promise not to support income or sales taxes, they will have difficulty winning broad support.

Craig said she does not support an income or sales tax and would veto both if she came to her desk as governor. However, she wants to maintain the interest and dividend tax, which is due to be abolished in January.

“I do not support a tax break for the wealthiest in our state like Kelly Ayotte,” she said, adding that she also supports legalizing cannabis as a way to fund public education and affordable housing. “My focus as governor is to lower our costs for hard-working families in the state.”

Ayotte responded, “This is not a tax break, it is an income tax and it is a reinstatement of a tax that the Legislature and the governor have already voted to eliminate.” She has repeatedly argued that Craig supports higher taxes in New Hampshire would.

“It is obvious that Kelly Ayotte has been absent for the last eight years. The state has significantly reduced costs and shifted them to all communities in our state and we are seeing an increase in property taxes,” Craig responded, saying she is trying to combat these challenges.

Craig also said she would be open to raising the interest and dividend tax threshold for the top 1%.

“Sorry. What does 'open' mean? 'Open' means keep your wallet, guys, because that's so non-specific,” Ayotte said.

This time, Ayotte is not lured by Blackstone

When the conversation turned to housing, Craig quickly attacked Ayotte over her position as a board member of Blackstone, a global investment firm.

“My opponent sat on a corporate board and made millions of dollars from Blackstone, which is profiting from this housing crisis,” Craig said. “She has pocketed millions of dollars because of the housing crisis in our country and that is wrong. We cannot trust her to meet this challenge while benefiting from it.”

When Ayotte and Craig met at the Mount Washington Valley Economic Council debate a week earlier, this accusation led to a heated exchange between the two candidates, with Ayotte on the defensive. This time, Ayotte dodged the bait and instead resorted to her usual response that Craig was “attacking the private sector.”

“To ensure we build more housing, we need to bring the private sector to the table,” Ayotte said. “We should also lobby HUD. I can leverage my experience as a U.S. Senator working on housing tax credits for low-income earners. I was just at one such project in Rochester, where HUD, New Hampshire Housing and the private sector are at the table building workforce housing. We’re going to do this across the state.”

Craig then cited her own experiences working with the private sector and HUD to create housing in Manchester. She said she brought in $30 million for affordable housing initiatives.

“I don’t just visit housing estates. I did it,” Craig said.

Mayor's Experience vs. Senator's Experience

Craig and Ayotte both argued that their experience made them the right choice for governor.

Craig highlighted her experience writing budgets for the City of Manchester and applying for federal grants, such as the regional Build Back Better grant, which gave the city $40 million to build the bioproduction industry. She listed partnerships she formed during her time in office, such as Families in Transition to combat homelessness, and the work she did to create more affordable housing and improve Manchester Boston Regional Airport. Craig discussed her credentials in education, such as her signing of the ConVal education funding lawsuit as mayor and how Manchester built the largest community solar plant in the state during her term.

Ayotte's experience as a senator, she said, included work on the Commerce Committee and on low-income housing tax credits. Ayotte also said her time in the private sector taught her how to cut bureaucracy and how to achieve efficiencies and reduce costs through a “lean process.” She said knowing how the private sector works will help her tackle issues from child care to housing to Manchester Boston Regional Airport.

Both discussed how their experience has taught them to be bipartisan: Craig said she has worked with every mayor across the state, regardless of party, while Ayotte said she is one of the most bipartisan senators in Congress and praised her role as Attorney General of the state for both Democratic and Republican governors.

Conspicuously absent: the abortion issue

Abortion is an important issue across the country and has been raised since the overturn of Roe v. Wade increased Democratic turnout in many races. However, it was hardly mentioned in Thursday's debate.

The only mention of Craig came in her opening and closing statements, in which she emphasized that she would protect reproductive freedom “because I trust women to make their own health care decisions.”

Since it was a debate hosted by a chamber of commerce and whose questions focused on economic issues, the absence of abortion was perhaps not so surprising. But Ayotte's pro-life record as a senator was the focus of Craig's attacks on Ayotte throughout the campaign, even leading Ayotte to release several ads on the issue.

The election will take place on Tuesday, November 5th.

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