Automobile dealership executive and three-term state Rep. Donovan Fenton defeated Keene City Councilor and software engineer Bobby Williams on Tuesday night in the Democratic primary to succeed state Sen. Jay Kahn in state Senate District 10, which includes Dublin, Hancock and Peterborough.
Fenton will face Sylvester “Sly” Karasinski, a member of the select board in Swanzey, in the Nov. 8 general election. As of late Tuesday night, Karasinski was trouncing radio host Ian Freeman in the Republican primary. Freeman wants New Hampshire to secede from the United States and is facing 25 federal felony charges related to cryptocurrency.
Early, unofficial returns showed Fenton defeating Williams by a 2-1 margin in Keene, 1,709-821, and by a similar ratio elsewhere in the Monadnock Region.
“We ran our race on the issues, what’s important to young, working families — rising housing costs, lack of affordable housing, lack of child care, our public education system being attacked,” Fenton said after declaring victory. “These are the issues that are important to the electorate and to me.”
Fenton, 33, said he will stress the same things in the general election campaign, and noted that, if elected, his relative youth compared to other state senators would allow him to be a voice for people who feel they are not being heard.
He also said abortion is sure to be a key topic in the fall campaign.
“We witnessed the first abortion ban in New Hampshire history,” he said, referring to a law enacted last year that prohibits most abortions after 24 weeks of pregnancy. “Democratic voters are galvanized to protect reproductive rights. I’m proud to be their champion. On the ballot is a woman’s right to choose and her health care.”
Williams, 45, said by text that he had called Donovan to concede and “looked forward to supporting him as a candidate and state senator.”
Williams made protection of the environment a key issue in his campaign and has said more needs to be done to fight climate change.
Kahn, D-Keene, announced in May that he would not seek a fourth term in the reliably Democratic Senate District 10.
In the Republican primary, Karasinski, 58, was winning by nearly a 3-1 margin with more than half the vote in.
“It’s looking good so far,” he said. “I was the only serious candidate in the race.”
Freeman, 42, said he was happy that it appeared he would get more than 25 percent of the vote.
“I didn’t have any expectation that I was going to win,” he said. “It was about outreach, getting the word out about independence.”
He said he remains convinced New Hampshire could and should secede from the United States.
Meanwhile, Karasinski said his goal is to “stop the overreach of government.”
“I know the opposition party is big on sales and income taxes and I’m not, and I think we can live within our means and cut state spending,” he said.
Karasinski, superintendent of the North Swanzey Water & Fire Precinct, said during the campaign that he wants New Hampshire’s abortion law to become more restrictive.
He said it’s possible a fetus could be viable before the 24-week mark, so he’d like to see the ban placed at 20 weeks.
He described himself as a “big proponent of school choice,” or the use of public money for parents to place their children in private school.
In state Senate District 11, Gary L. Daniels, the incumbent Republican, won with 78 percent of the vote to John Frechette’s 22 percent. He will run against Democrat Shannon E. Chandley, who was unopposed.
There were no party primaries in Senate Districts 8, 9, and 12, which take in several Monadnock region communities.
These districts have Republican incumbents who faced no challenge from within their own party: Sens. Ruth Ward of Stoddard in District 8 (which includes Antrim and Bennington), Denise Ricciardi of Bedford in District 9 (which includes Greenfield and Jaffrey) and Kevin Avard of Nashua in District 12 (which includes Rindge).
Their Democratic challengers also ran unopposed in their party: Charlene Marcotte Lovett of Claremont in District 8, Matthew McLaughlin of Bedford in District 9 and Melanie Levesque of Brookline in District 12.
Rick Green can be reached at rgreen@keenesentinel.com or 603-355-8567. These articles are being shared by partners in The Granite State News Collaborative. For more information visit collaborativenh.org.