Despite Donald Trump’s narrow defeat in the state of New Hampshire on Election Day, the Monadnock region came out to support the nation’s President-elect.
Trump may have lost New Hampshire to Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton by less than 3,000 votes, but lead the 16 towns covered by the Ledger-Transcript by a vote of 12,177 to 11,789.
Things were pretty split in the region, with eight towns going to Trump and eight towns going to Clinton. Towns like Rindge, Mason, and Greenville carried Trump, while towns like Peterborough, Hancock, and Dublin continued to bleed blue.
Many area voters identified with Trump’s political message as he represented a change in United States politics. And while some Trump supporters didn’t agree with everything Trump had said, they felt confident with him as their candidate of choice.
“As far as Trump goes, I didn’t care for him, but then again Hillary I don’t care for her either,” said Judy Hardwick, at the polls in Francestown on Election Day. “I think in the past he’s done bad things, which nobody appreciates, but hasn’t everybody done bad things?”
The results of the 2016 Election in New Hampshire also represents a shift in the state becoming less blue than the 2008 Election, where President Barack Obama handily defeated Republican nominee John McCain by nearly 70,000 votes.
The Monadnock region specifically saw a large change in the dynamics of how people vote, with many previously blue towns from 2008 turning red in 2016, such as Antrim, Bennington, Greenville, Lyndeborough, and Wilton.
In an election where many weren’t satisfied by the Democratic or Republican candidate, Independent candidates also received more votes than in previous years. For example, Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson eclipsed all third party candidate totals from 2008.
Throughout the Monadnock region, Johnson commanded 2.9 to 7.6-percent of the vote – 4.2-percent statewide -in a third-party field that also saw votes for Jill Stein and Rocky De La Fuente. In 2008, no town in the area had more than 1.8-percent of the vote going third-party.
Former Republican gubernatorial candidate Frank Edelblut had a stronger-than-expected showing in the state’s primary election.
Edelblut, who lives in Wilton, trailed in the polls leading up to the primary, but ended up with only 800 fewer votes than opponent Chris Sununu, who went on to win the race in November’s general election.
Unlike Sununu, who has has served three terms on the state’s Executive Council and who has name recognition through his father, former Gov. John H. Sununu and his brother, former U.S. Sen. John E. Sununu, Edelblut is relatively new to the political arena. Edelblut served one term as state representative and is on the town’s water commission.
Edelblut, however, was able to gain widespread support. In the 16 towns that the Ledger covers, Edelblut snatched up more support in every one of the towns than his opponent. In Rindge, Edelblut took home 345 votes to Sununu’s 134, in New Ipswich he received 321 votes to his opponent’s 78, and in his hometown of Wilton he gained 264 votes to Sununu’s 80.
Temple native and ConVal grad Dan Weeks entered the political arena this year in a bid for the state’s Executive Council District 5 seat.
Newcomer Weeks faced Republican incumbent Dave Wheeler, who resides in Wilton, and has held the position from 2001-2005, 2011-2013, and the current 2015-2017 term.
Although Weeks was able to win key cities, such as Nashua and Peterborough, the leads were not substantial enough to oust Wheeler from the seat.
District 2 incumbent Colin Van Ostern (D) and District 3 incumbent Chris Sununu (R) did not run for reelection. Instead the two faced off for the governorship after winning each of their parties’ nominations in September.
Democrat Andru Volinsky won the vacant District 2 seat and republican state Sen. Russell Prescott won District 3.
Executive council incumbents in Districts 1 and 4 were also seeking re-election, although both were able to ward off their opponents.
Peterborough-based entrepreneur Jeanne Dietsch was narrowly edged out by Democratic opponent Lee Nyquist for the state Senate District 9 seat during the primary election.
Dietsch swept many towns in the region, but was unable to claim the lead over Nyquist. She lost by a narrow margin of 79 votes, according to election counts.
Nyquist headed into the general election confident that he would be able to buck Republican incumbent Andy Sanborn from the position, but was unable to do so.