Amanda Allen hoped someone else would step up.
In the years since she first voted to send Jonah Wheeler to the New Hampshire House of Representatives in 2022, Allen said she’s watched his perspective shift, and not in a direction she likes.
Wheeler voted and spoke in favor of allowing government entities and businesses to separate bathrooms and locker rooms based on biological sex rather than gender identity, a policy he maintains protects women’s privacy and safety. Other Democrats and LGBTQ advocates argue it is harmful to transgender people.
Wheeler’s position and his defense of it, she said, isn’t what she envisioned when casting her vote for him. For a while, she hoped someone would run against him, but no one did.
“If nobody else is going to do it, I guess I should do it myself,” said Allen, who lives in Peterborough. “So here I am in the very last minute, doing the thing that I think needs to be done, and doing my best to do it well.”
Allen is waging a down-to-the-wire write-in campaign against Wheeler in next week’s Democratic primary election to represent Peterborough and Sharon.
Wheeler said he welcomes the competition but that she should’ve jumped into the race earlier so there could be more opportunities for public forum and debate.
He said his voting record speaks for itself and that the gender-related bills are not his priority. Wheeler has spoken about them several times, including in a recent viral video on X, but said he participates in hundreds of bills each year.
“No bill, no issue, doesn’t get debated or discussed in the New Hampshire State House of Representatives,” Wheeler said. “The idea that this has been my top issue … I think it’s a little silly. I am a legislator who tries to put out the best form of law for the state.”
Allen works for the healthcare nonprofit Foundation for Healthy Communities and moved to New Hampshire from Massachusetts six years ago. She founded Peterborough’s Inclusive Community Committee, is an alternate member on the town’s Affordable Housing Committee and serves on the board of the Monadnock Area Transitional Shelter.
Allen said vulnerable people — whether it’s transgender people, those who are homeless or facing poverty — deserve “the ability to participate fully in public life,” which she said stems from increasing access to things like housing, healthcare and childcare. She hopes to focus on those issues in Concord.
“I just think that when families are safe and healthy and thriving, the whole community is thriving, and that’s what I have in my heart when I think about how I would represent our community,” Allen said.
If re-elected, Wheeler said he wants to focus on revising the state’s education funding formula to provide property tax relief. The current system relies heavily on local property taxes, and he argues that residents of “property-poor” towns pay disproportionately higher taxes and have fewer educational opportunities than those in wealthier areas.
“The Legislature needs to deal with that if we’re going to make the state one that actually functions,” Wheeler said. “The property tax issue is the biggest issue. It’s not just my biggest issue. It’s the biggest issue that the state faces right now if it is to survive for another 50 years.”
The district leans heavily Democratic and has two seats: Wheeler holds one, and longtime state Rep. Peter Leishman holds the other. While Leishman has joined Wheeler in voting for the so-called “bathroom bill,” Allen said she believes he has been more open to feedback from constituents.
The two candidates who receive the most votes on Sept. 8 will advance to the general election. One Republican, Kimberly Thomas, is also running.
‘The balance between rights’
Allen said her campaign isn’t entirely focused on unseating Wheeler, but she recalled a “fired-up” listening session in Peterborough last year where residents debated the so-called “bathroom bill” and Wheeler defended his vote.
That session devolved into several shouting matches. Allen said Wheeler’s behavior there wasn’t the representation she wanted.
“I just felt so hurt,” Allen said. “I could feel the pain of the people in the room, desperate for Jonah to listen and empathetically attempt to understand what they were saying, what their perspectives were, and I was disappointed that he was brushing off his constituents in such a glib and sarcastic way.”
Wheeler said at the listening session that he voted his conscience after hearing from women in Peterborough who “don’t feel safe in their spaces anymore.”
“You can be masculine and be a feminine person. You can be feminine and be a masculine person. It doesn’t matter, actually, to me, and you can do whatever you feel fit. But your rights end when the rights of another’s begin,” Wheeler said told the crowd at the time. “Government is about the balance between rights. It’s about the balance between the minority and the majority. So, I hear the minority and then I’m also listening to the majority of women out there.”
The bathroom bill and other gender-related legislation that he has supported, like banning gender surgeries and hormone therapy for minors, are typically Republican talking points.
Wheeler is one of the legislators who breaks from his party’s platform the most, though he still votes with Democrats 75% of the time, according to data from Citizens Count. While he disagrees on gender issues, Wheeler supports the Democratic position on education funding, climate action and other issues.
“You have to do the right thing on all the different issues that come before you,” Wheeler said gender-related bills. “Based off the evidence and testimonies from people on both sides of this issue, I came down on the conclusions I did.”
