Your Vote Matters
The excuse that everyone uses when they are dissatisfied with politics is “My vote does not matter”. However, that is not true. At the very least in New Hampshire. In the New Hampshire State House, Republicans had a 13-seat majority and looked to expand upon the majority because of the “red wave” that was projected to sweep the entire country but only made landfall in Florida.
Larry Gagne, the Republican incumbent, expected to win re-election, lost the race to Democratic Candidate Maxine Mosley by 1 vote. Mosley initially lost by 23 votes. However, a recount was requested because of the closeness of the race by Mosley. The recount resulted in 2 additional votes for Mosley, and Gagne lost 22 votes.
Maxine Mosley’s race was not the only close one in New Hampshire State House. Mark Vallone defeated incumbent Cody Belanger by 7 votes initially. After the recount in that race at the request of Belanger, Vallone’s win was whittled down to just 5 votes.
A third race came down to a couple of votes. Incumbent Democratic Rep. Eamon Kelly fell 4 votes shy of his Republican challenger, John Greer, before a Tuesday recount. During the Kelly picked up 9 votes, while Greer gained 3 votes. This brought the total in favor of Rep. Kelly by 2 votes.
The three pick-ups by the Democrats brought the New Hampshire State House down to just a Republican majority of 2 seats. This is the closest it has ever been in the New Hampshire State House since the 1940s. The repercussions of the slim majority have been felt already. “You’re not going to see any partisan legislation get passed in the next two years,” stated Republican House Leader Jason Osborne.
