Republican primary voters selected Jim Lawrence to compete with Annie Kuster to represent New Hampshire’s second congressional district in Washington.
Voters in the Monadnock Region backed Lawrence convincingly, as he earned nearly 48 percent of the vote in the 16 towns in the Monadnock Ledger-Transcript coverage area. He won 40 percent statewide.
Among those towns, he carried 14, only losing Greenfield and Mason to state Rep. Jack Flanagan. He squeaked out the win in Sharon, the closest precinct race of the day, with 13 votes to Flanagan’s 12. Walter Kelly finished third in Sharon with 11.
Lawrence, from Hudson, served three terms in the State House of Representatives. In 2014, he ran for this nomination and was defeated by Marilinda Garcia, who eventually lost the general election to Kuster, from Hopkinton, already the incumbent.
Republicans held signs in support of Lawrence across the region. They support him for his conservative principles and experience as an Air Force veteran.
“I like his positions, what he stands for,” Eldon Munson III said outside the polls in Francestown. “There’s too much big government in the state and in D.C.”
Neil Sandford of Dublin echoed that support of Lawrence’s character. “He’s a straight-shooter,” he said.
Flanagan finished a distant second, earning 28 percent of the statewide vote. Walter Kelly, Andy Martin, Eric Estevez, Jay Mercer and Casey Newell followed.
“Flanagan didn’t have any issues listed,” Margie Booth of Bennington said of researching the candidates. “It just said, ‘I’m a pragmatist,’ and I thought that’s nice but what do you stand for.”
She and her husband Tom voted for Lawrence, citing his stances of low spending and low taxation, defense of gun rights, work in opposition to the Affordable Care Act, and that he is pro-life, of which she said, “That was big.”
On Nov. 8, Lawrence will challenge Kuster. He is attempting to become the first New Hampshire Republican elected to congress during a presidential election year since 2004. Frank Guinta, the incumbent representative for District 1, and Kelly Ayotte, a senator and also an incumbent, will join him in that endeavor.