2012 elections review: Results still coming in for New Hampshire legislative primaries

September 12, 2012

By Ballotpedia's Congressional and State legislative teams

The primary season continued yesterday with elections in Delaware, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island.

Here's a recap of what happened in New Hampshire.

Contested Primaries in New Hampshire -- September 11, 2012
	U.S. House (2 seats)	State Legislature (424 seats)
Total Democratic Contested Primaries	0 (0%)	18 (7.9%)
Total Republican Contested Primaries	2 (100%)	68 (29.8%)

Congress

United States House of Representatives elections in New Hampshire, 2012

New Hampshire has two congressional seats on the ballot in 2012. A total of 12 candidates filed to run, made up of 2 Democratic challengers, 6 Republican challengers, 2 incumbents, and 2 third-party candidates. A total of 429 U.S. House seats have held primaries. Thus far, 55.01% of possible primaries have been contested. New Hampshire's contested figure of 50% (2 out of 4 possible party primaries) is slightly less competitive than the national average.

District 1: Incumbent Frank Guinta successfully triumphed over a primary challenge from Vern Clough and Rick Parent in the Republican primary. Guinta will face Carol Shea-Porter in November, who ran unopposed in the Democratic primary.

District 2: Incumbent Charlie Bass defeated Gerard Beloin, Will Dean, Miroslaw Dziedzic, and Dennis Lamare in the Republican primary. Bass will face Ann McLane Kuster in November, who ran unopposed in the Democratic primary. Libertarian Hardy Macia and Independent Danny Keating will also compete in the general election.

Members of the U.S. House from New Hampshire -- Partisan Breakdown
Party		As of November 2012	After the 2012 Election
	Democratic Party	0	2
	Republican Party	2	0
Total		2	2

State legislature

See also New Hampshire State Senate elections, 2012 and New Hampshire House of Representatives elections, 2012

In New Hampshire, there are 424 total legislative seats with elections in 2012. There were 18 (7.9%) contested Democratic primaries and 68 (29.8%) contested Republican primaries. Thus, there were 86 (18.9%) races with more candidates on the primary ballot than allotted seats in that district. The 18.9% figure of contested primaries in New Hampshire is on par with the current national contested average of 18.4%.

There were a total of 144 incumbents facing primary opposition -- 14 Democrats and 130 Republican. Of those 144 incumbents, 22 were defeated by primary opposition.

Senate

District 5: In the only Democratic primary for Senate, voters had the choice between challengers Sandy Harris and David Pierce a. Pierce is a current member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives and Harris formerly represented in the House.

District 9: Freshman incumbent Andy Sanborn a faced off against challengers Michael Kenney and Ken Hawkins. Hawkins is a current member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives. Sanborn will advance to face Lee C. Nyquist (D) in the general election.

House

Coos 1: With 9 of 10 precincts reporting, incumbents Laurence M. Rappaport and Duffy Daugherty lead challenger Charles H. Kurtz, Jr. in votes. Rappaport holds a steady lead, with 44% of the recorded votes, while Daugherty and Kurtz remain very close, with 30% and 27% of the recorded votes.

New Hampshire House of Representatives
Party		As of November 5, 2012	After the 2012 Election
	Democratic Party	103	221
	Republican Party	288	179
	Independent	2	0
	Vacancy	7	0
Total		400	400

New Hampshire State Senate
Party		As of November 5, 2012	After the 2012 Election
	Democratic Party	5	11
	Republican Party	19	13
Total		24	24

See also

• United States House of Representatives elections in New Hampshire, 2012
• New Hampshire State Senate elections, 2012
• New Hampshire House of Representatives elections, 2012