New Hampshire’s two-year gubernatorial cycle means the campaign trail never really goes cold in the Granite State. With the September 8 primary on the horizon and the general election set for November 3, three candidates have already staked their claim to the governor’s office — and they couldn’t be more different from one another. Here’s what you need to know about the Republican incumbent and the two Democrats looking to unseat her.
By Granite State Report
Kelly Ayotte (R) — The Incumbent
Kelly Ayotte is one of the most recognizable names in New Hampshire politics, and she’s built a resume to match.
Born and raised in Nashua, Ayotte worked her way through school — her first job was bussing tables at a restaurant in Meredith — before earning a political science degree from Penn State and a law degree from Villanova. She clerked for the New Hampshire Supreme Court, spent time in private practice, and then moved into the state’s Attorney General office as a prosecutor, eventually becoming chief of the Homicide Prosecution Unit.
In 2004, Governor Craig Benson appointed her as New Hampshire’s first female Attorney General. She was later reappointed twice — notably by Democratic Governor John Lynch, a sign of her bipartisan credibility at the time. One of her most high-profile cases was the prosecution of the killer of Manchester Police Officer Michael Briggs, which resulted in a death penalty conviction.
Ayotte won a U.S. Senate seat in 2010, defeating Democrat Paul Hodes with 60% of the vote. She served one term in Washington, where she was ranked among the most bipartisan members of the Senate. She lost her 2016 reelection bid to Maggie Hassan by just over 1,000 votes — one of the closest Senate races in the country that year — in part due to fallout from her complicated relationship with Donald Trump during that campaign cycle.
After leaving the Senate, Ayotte moved into the private sector and sat on several major corporate boards, including BAE Systems (New Hampshire’s largest manufacturing employer), Caterpillar, and News Corp. When Chris Sununu announced he wouldn’t seek a fifth term, Ayotte jumped in and won the 2024 governor’s race, defeating Democrat Joyce Craig by about 9 points.
Now serving as the 83rd Governor of New Hampshire, Ayotte has positioned herself as continuing the “Sununu path” — fiscally conservative governance with no income or sales tax. Her first year in office has been defined in part by navigating the tricky political balance of maintaining distance from President Trump without directly confronting him, a tightrope that recent events — including a scrapped DHS plan to build an ICE detention warehouse in Merrimack — have made increasingly difficult.
Ayotte hasn’t formally declared her reelection bid, but she’s all but certain to run. Her campaign has already raised more than $2.1 million, with $1.4 million cash on hand as of late 2025. UNH polling shows her favored for reelection, though the political landscape could shift as Election Day approaches.
Cinde Warmington (D) — The Healthcare Attorney
Cinde Warmington is the most credentialed Democrat in the primary field and represents the party establishment’s best bet against Ayotte — though she comes with baggage.
Warmington, 68, holds degrees from UMass Dartmouth (BS in medical technology), the University of Texas at Arlington (MBA), and UNH School of Law (JD). Her career spans four decades in healthcare, beginning as a lab technician at Lakes Region General Hospital in Laconia. She moved through hospital management positions before attending law school and becoming a healthcare attorney at Shaheen & Gordon, where she eventually became a partner and chair of the Health Care Practice Group.
In 2020, Warmington won a seat on New Hampshire’s Executive Council representing District 2, defeating Republican Jim Beard. She was reelected in 2022 with 60% of the vote. On the Council, she positioned herself as a check on Republican overreach, defending state contracts with Planned Parenthood and pushing to expand affordable housing and childcare services.
Warmington ran for governor in 2024 but lost the Democratic primary to Joyce Craig, finishing about 7,000 votes behind. Craig then went on to lose to Ayotte in the general. In February 2026, Warmington announced she’s running again, framing her campaign around affordability — property taxes, groceries, housing, and electricity costs that she says Ayotte has failed to address.
Her biggest vulnerability is well-known. Earlier in her career, Warmington lobbied on behalf of Purdue Pharma, the company at the center of the nation’s opioid crisis. In 2002, she appeared before the New Hampshire legislature and defended OxyContin. Republicans have hammered her relentlessly on this point, and her primary opponent Jon Kiper has piled on as well, criticizing her ties to the opioid industry. Warmington’s supporters counter that her advocacy work has since been focused on expanding substance use disorder treatment and mental health access — and that the attacks are a “cheap shot” taken out of context.
Regardless, the Purdue connection will follow her throughout this campaign, and her ability to neutralize it will likely determine whether she can consolidate Democratic support.
Jon Kiper (D) — The Working-Class Populist
If Ayotte is the establishment Republican and Warmington is the establishment Democrat, Jon Kiper is something else entirely — a small-business owner, first-time candidate (in 2024), and self-described voice of the working class.
Kiper, 43, was born in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, and grew up in Stratham. He graduated from Exeter High School in 2001, studied audio engineering at the SAE Institute in Melbourne, Australia, then came back to New Hampshire to pursue music and writing. He recorded two albums under the band name Jesus is a Jedi and published two books, including Dream Detectives: Something Funny About the Cake, a finalist for the New Hampshire Children’s Book Award.
In 2014, he opened Jonny Boston’s International, a burger and taco restaurant in Newmarket. He ran it himself for a decade — cooking, washing dishes, serving customers, managing the books. The restaurant eventually closed, reportedly due to soaring food costs linked to tariff uncertainty. He also served on the Newmarket Town Council.
Kiper ran in the 2024 Democratic primary for governor and finished third with about 9.5% of the vote, far behind Craig and Warmington. After the loss, he initially launched a 2026 campaign as an independent, but switched back to the Democratic Party in September 2025 after realizing there was grassroots energy looking for a candidate willing to say what party insiders wouldn’t.
And Kiper is willing to say things other candidates won’t. He has refused to sign the traditional New Hampshire pledge to veto any income or sales tax, calling it “stupid.” He’s openly discussed the state’s over-reliance on property taxes and has made housing affordability, education funding reform, and cannabis legalization the pillars of his campaign. He’s argued that New Hampshire’s current tax system rewards wealthy retirees while driving out working families — a message that resonates with progressive voters, even if it makes the party establishment nervous.
Kiper is dramatically outmatched financially. He’s raised roughly $22,000 compared to Warmington’s expected fundraising machine and Ayotte’s $2 million-plus war chest. About half of his haul came from a single donor. But he’s betting that authenticity and a populist message can cut through in a low-turnout primary.
He lives in Newmarket with his nine-year-old son Ollie, his partner Emily, and their two cats — Duck and Pizza Cat.
What to Watch
The Democratic primary is the real story here. Warmington enters as the frontrunner on the blue side, but the Purdue Pharma issue gives Kiper ammunition and could open the door for other candidates — Portsmouth Mayor Deaglan McEachern has strongly hinted at a run, and former state senator Tom Sherman has publicly expressed interest.
On the Republican side, Ayotte looks strong, but the filing period doesn’t open until June 2026, and Corey Lewandowski — a senior adviser at the Department of Homeland Security — has expressed interest in running regardless of what Ayotte does.
New Hampshire’s two-year cycle and its deeply independent electorate make every governor’s race unpredictable. With Trump-era politics continuing to reshape the landscape, affordability pressures squeezing Granite State families, and a Democratic field still taking shape, 2026 could be a more competitive race than early polling suggests.
Stay tuned.
