When Hannah Bissex started to give her opening statement during the recent candidate forum at Franklin Pierce University, her microphone wasn’t turned on. Her opponent in the Cheshire County District 14 House race, John Hunt, sitting next to her, reached over and hit the button so she could be heard.
It was a small gesture, but a polite one, a respectful one.
On Election Day Nov. 8, Hunt came out on top, with 1,766 votes to Bissex’s 1,028. He’ll be serving his 19th term in Concord alongside newcomers like Jonah Wheeler in Hillsborough District 33.
Now that the dust has settled, it will be up to this year’s winners at the state, local and national level to govern, hopefully with the only goal being making New Hampshire a better place to live and work. The next two years will include plenty of issues already known, such as affordable housing, and others likely no one has even contemplated yet.
But while we wish the winners well, we also want to salute candidates like Bissex who ran and came up short. Even if we disagree with their views – Republican U.S. Senate candidate Don Bolduc’s stances on abortion and the 2020 presidential election, for example – running for office is a difficult and time-consuming process that carries the possibility of defeat at the end, so people willing to do so deserve our respect.
More importantly, in a year where much of the pre-election talk was about the possible fate of democracy itself, we applaud all who voted and stood up for democracy. When democracy works best, candidates are willing to share differing views and put each other to the test for voters to decide which they prefer.
Even better is when candidates show each other the respect that Hunt, Bissex and the other candidates showed at Franklin Pierce. Although contested elections are important, the divisiveness that has marked too much of our politics the last several years needs to stop.
We also hope that this year’s unsuccessful candidates continue to find ways to contribute, either by running for elective office again in the future or lending their desire, experience and time to other causes and organizations. Even though they didn’t win the offices they sought, they still have plenty to give.