Congresswoman Ann McLane Kuster held onto her seat this election cycle, re-elected for a third term.
“I’m humbled by the faith you have put in me. I’m committed to the task at hand, and I look forward to continuing to fight for you in Washington,” wrote Kuster in a statement released Wednesday morning.
Susan Brown of Lyndeborough, who donned white in honor of the suffregettes while campaigning outside of Citizen’s Hall in Lyndeborough Tuesday, said that she believed Kuster would support the overall Democratic agenda, including issues she herself felt strongly about.
“I feel the Democrats are unified in working toward certain things – minimum wage, women’s health and reproductive rights – and I think both [Gov. Maggie] Hassan and Kuster are in line with that,” said Brown.
In her statement, Kuster reiterated her dedication to working across the aisle for solutions to key issues.
“I’m committed to bringing together Republicans and Democrats to get the much-needed funding to support those on the frontlines of the opioid epidemic and to improve access to high-quality healthcare for our veterans,” wrote Kuster.
Kuster also spoke of the need to shore up the New Hampshire economy through improving student debt and job growth.
“We also need to make sure students can get the education they need to succeed without being crushed by college debt,” she said. “We must create jobs and grow our economy.”
Across the Monadnock region, Kuster, where she held leads, only kept one step ahead of her opponent, Republican Jim Lawrence. In Peterborough, where the Democratic ticket as a whole fared well, Kuster beat out Lawrence by over 1,000 votes. But that was an outlier in the Monadnock region, where Kuster and Lawrence were either neck and neck, or it was Lawrence that held a decisive lead.
New Ipswich and Rindge, both with core conservative bases, saw strong support for Lawrence, who won by about 600 votes in Rindge and by over 1,000 in New Ipswich.
District-wide, Kuster garnered just under 50 percent of the vote across the region, beating out Lawrence, who comparatively only captured about 45 percent of the vote, possibly hurt by the Independent John Babiarz, who took about 16,700 votes across the district.
Kuster will be joined in Congress by Congresswoman-elect Carol Shea-Porter, who overturned incumbent Republican Frank Guinta to turn the state a solid blue for the House. However, like the Senate, Tuesday’s election saw the GOP take control of the House majority, despite the Democratic wins in New Hampshire.
As of mid-day Wednesday, the GOP had taken 239 seats in the U.S. House, while Democrats had only captured 193, where 218 represents a majority.
Shea-Porter won New Hampshire by less than two points.
Ashley Saari can be reached at 924-7172 ext. 244 or asaari@ledgertranscript.com. She’s on Twitter @AshleySaariMLT.