Joyce Craig

Joyce Craig was the Chair of the Manchester Board of School Committee in New Hampshire. She assumed office on January 2, 2018. She left office on January 2, 2024.

Craig (Democratic Party) ran for election for Governor of New Hampshire. She lost in the general election on November 5, 2024.

Craig became the mayor of Manchester, New Hampshire on January 2, 2018. The Mayor of Manchester serves as the Chair of the Manchester Board of School Committee.

Biography

Joyce Craig was born in Manchester, New Hampshire and was elected Mayor of Manchester in 2017. Craig formerly served on the Board of School Committee for Manchester's public schools.

2024 battleground election

See also: New Hampshire gubernatorial election, 2024

Ballotpedia identified the November 5, general election as a battleground race. The summary below is from our coverage of this election, found here. Kelly Ayotte (R) defeated Joyce Craig (D) and Stephen Villee (L) in the general election for governor of New Hampshire on November 5, 2024. Incumbent Chris Sununu (R) did not run for re-election.

Before the election, The Cook Political Report with Amy Walter, Inside Elections with Nathan L. Gonzales rated the election a Toss-Up and Larry J. Sabato's Crystal Ball rated it Lean Republican.

Craig was mayor of Manchester from 2018 to 2024. She previously served on Manchester’s school board and as a city alderman. Craig earned a bachelor's degree from the University of New Hampshire. Before running for public office, she was an account executive at the advertising agency Hill Holiday and worked for Viacord, a biotech startup.

Craig ran on her record. Her website said that as mayor, she "created thousands of good-paying jobs, worked with law enforcement to reduce violent crime by nearly 40%, and delivered thousands of housing units to the city." If elected governor, her website said she wanted to "give New Hampshire families the opportunities they need to succeed by strengthening our public schools, increasing affordable housing, and protecting access to abortion."

Ayotte was New Hampshire's attorney general from 2004 to 2009 and served in the U.S. Senate from 2011 to 2017. She earned a bachelor's degree from Pennsylvania State University and a law degree from Villanova University School of Law. She previously worked as an associate at McLane, Graf, Raulerson & Middleton, as a prosecutor for the New Hampshire Attorney General's office, and as legal counsel for Gov. Craig Benson (R).

Ayotte ran on her record as attorney general and senator. As attorney general, Ayotte's website said she worked with law enforcement and successfully prosecuted the murder of Manchester Police Officer Michael Briggs. In the U.S. Senate, Ayotte's website said she "defended our Constitution and fought back against the overreach of the Obama/Biden Administration," and "was a steadfast advocate for securing our southern border, reining in Washington’s wasteful spending, strengthening our U.S. Military, and protecting New Hampshire from criminals and drugs." Ayotte said she "will ensure that New Hampshire is safe, prosperous, and free. I will fight to keep our streets safe, make New Hampshire schools number one in the country, protect our economic advantage, and not only defend our Live Free or Die spirit but strengthen it."

On September 10, 2024, Politico reported that national groups also targeted the election leading up to the primary, with the Democratic Governors Association spending $9 million on advertisements criticizing Ayotte and the Republican Governors Association donating more than $2 million to Ayotte's campaign through an affiliated group. New Hampshire was one of two battleground states the Democratic Governors Association targeted in 2024 with its Power to Appoint Fund, the other being North Carolina. The fund focused on electing Democratic governors in battleground states because of their roles in appointing justices to the states' supreme courts.

At the time of the election, New Hampshire had a Republican trifecta and triplex. All 424 seats of the state legislature were up for election.

This was one of 11 gubernatorial elections that took place in 2024. The governor serves as a state's top executive official and is the only executive office elected in all 50 states. At the time of the 2024 elections, there were 27 Republican governors and 23 Democratic governors. Click here for an overview of all 11 gubernatorial elections that took place in 2024.

Heading into the 2024 elections, there were 23 Republican trifectas, 17 Democratic trifectas, and 10 divided governments where neither party held trifecta control. There were 25 Republican triplexes, 20 Democratic triplexes, and five divided governments where neither party held triplex control.

A state government trifecta refers to a situation where one party controls a state's governorship and majorities in both chambers of the state legislature. A state government triplex refers to a situation where the governor, attorney general, and secretary of state are all members of the same political party.

Elections

2024

See also: New Hampshire gubernatorial election, 2024

General election

General election for Governor of New Hampshire

Kelly Ayotte defeated Joyce Craig and Stephen Villee in the general election for Governor of New Hampshire on November 5, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Kelly Ayotte (R)	53.6	436,122
		Joyce Craig (D)	44.3	360,149
		Stephen Villee (L)	2.0	16,202
		Other/Write-in votes	0.1	1,024

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	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 813,497
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

• Edmond LaPlante (Constitution Party)

Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for Governor of New Hampshire

Joyce Craig defeated Cinde Warmington and Jonathan Kiper in the Democratic primary for Governor of New Hampshire on September 10, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Joyce Craig	47.9	59,976
		Cinde Warmington	41.8	52,420
		Jonathan Kiper	9.4	11,789
		Other/Write-in votes	0.9	1,076

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	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 125,261
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Republican primary election

Republican primary for Governor of New Hampshire

The following candidates ran in the Republican primary for Governor of New Hampshire on September 10, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Kelly Ayotte	63.1	88,117
		Chuck Morse	34.1	47,567
		Shaun Fife	0.6	876
	Submit photo	Robert McClory	0.6	839
		Frank Staples	0.6	809
	Submit photo	Richard McMenamon II	0.4	527
		Other/Write-in votes	0.6	867

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	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 139,602
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Polls

See also: Ballotpedia's approach to covering polls

Polls are conducted with a variety of methodologies and have margins of error or credibility intervals. The Pew Research Center wrote, "A margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points at the 95% confidence level means that if we fielded the same survey 100 times, we would expect the result to be within 3 percentage points of the true population value 95 of those times." For tips on reading polls from FiveThirtyEight, click here. For tips from Pew, click here.

Below we provide results for polls that are included in polling aggregation from FiveThirtyEight and RealClearPolitics, when available. Click here to read about FiveThirtyEight's criteria for including polls in its aggregation. We only report polls for which we can find a margin of error or credibility interval.

New Hampshire gubernatorial election, 2024: General election polls
Poll	Date	Craig	Ayotte	Undecided/Other	Margin of error	Sample size	Sponsor
St. Anselm	Oct. 28-29	46%	49%	5%	± 1.9	2791 LV	N/A
Rasmussen Reports	Oct. 24-28	44%	44%	12%	± 3.0	901 LV	N/A
WHDH-TV/Emerson	Oct. 21-23	43 %	46 %	11%	± 3.2	915 LV	N/A
The Dartmouth Poll	Oct. 5-18	51%	46%	3%	± 2.1	2,211RV	N/A
UMass Lowell	Oct. 2-8	41 %	42%	18%	± 4.8	600 LV	N/A

Click [show] to see older poll results
Poll	Date	Craig	Ayotte	Undecided/Other	Margin of error	Sample size	Sponsor
Saint Anselm College Survey Center	Oct. 1-2	44%	47%	9%	± 2.1	2104 LV	N/A
University of New Hampshire Survey Center	September 12-16	47%	46%	6%	± 2.4	1,695 LV	N/A
St. Anselm	September 11-12	43%	46%	11%	± 2.1	2241 LV	N/A
WHDH-TV/Emerson	November 10-13, 2023	40%	43%	17%	± 3.3	917 RV	N/A
Emerson	August 9-11, 2023	37%	46%	17%	± 3.4	837 RV	N/A

Election campaign finance

This section contains campaign finance figures from candidates submitted to the New Hampshire Secretary of State in this election. It does not include information on spending by satellite groups. Click here to access the reports.

Satellite spending

See also: Satellite spending

Satellite spending describes political spending not controlled by candidates or their campaigns; that is, any political expenditures made by groups or individuals that are not directly affiliated with a candidate. This includes spending by political party committees, super PACs, trade associations, and 501(c)(4) nonprofit groups.

If available, this section includes links to online resources tracking satellite spending in this election. To notify us of a resource to add, email us.

Race ratings

See also: Race rating definitions and methods

Ballotpedia provides race ratings from four outlets: The Cook Political Report, Inside Elections, Sabato's Crystal Ball, and DDHQ/The Hill. Each race rating indicates if one party is perceived to have an advantage in the race and, if so, the degree of advantage:

• Safe and Solid ratings indicate that one party has a clear edge and the race is not competitive.
• Likely ratings indicate that one party has a clear edge, but an upset is possible.
• Lean ratings indicate that one party has a small edge, but the race is competitive.
• Toss-up ratings indicate that neither party has an advantage.

Race ratings are informed by a number of factors, including polling, candidate quality, and election result history in the race's district or state.

Race ratings: New Hampshire gubernatorial election, 2024
Race tracker	Race ratings
	November 5, 2024	October 29, 2024	October 22, 2024	October 15, 2024
The Cook Political Report with Amy Walter	Toss-up	Toss-up	Toss-up	Toss-up
Inside Elections with Nathan L. Gonzales	Toss-up	Toss-up	Toss-up	Toss-up
Larry J. Sabato's Crystal Ball	Lean Republican	Toss-up	Toss-up	Toss-up
Note: Ballotpedia reviews external race ratings every week throughout the election season and posts weekly updates even if the media outlets have not revised their ratings during that week.

Endorsements

Craig received the following endorsements.

• U.S. Sen. Maggie Hassan (D)
• Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey (D)
• Frmr. Gov. John Lynch (D)
• American Federation of Teachers - New Hampshire
• National Educators Association - New Hampshire
• Democratic Governors Association
• EMILY's List
• Planned Parenthood New Hampshire Action Fund

Campaign themes

2024

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Joyce Craig did not complete Ballotpedia's 2024 Candidate Connection survey.

Campaign ads

View more ads here:

• YouTube
• Facebook

Campaign website

Craig’s campaign website stated the following:

“	Joyce Craig is running for Governor to strengthen communities and create opportunities for everyone to succeed. Joyce knows firsthand that New Hampshire’s state government has to do more to tackle our shared challenges and support working families. Joyce has a proven record of taking on tough fights and delivering results. As Mayor of Manchester, Joyce created thousands of good-paying jobs, worked with law enforcement to reduce violent crime by nearly 40%, and delivered thousands of housing units to the city. Joyce has the executive experience to take on the tough fights for all of us and will work to lower costs, tackle the housing crisis, protect reproductive freedom and more. Lowering Costs and Supporting Working Families On everything from energy prices, to housing, and rising property taxes, hardworking families are facing increased costs that are impacting our quality of life. Joyce is from a blue-collar family, her dad was an IBEW union electrician, she knows that too many families are struggling to get by and are being left behind by policies that favor the rich. As Mayor, Joyce saw how decisions at the State House to reduce state funding for public education and retirement were shifted to cities and towns and ultimately to local taxpayers. That’s wrong, and as Governor, Joyce will work to support our working families and stop the downshifting that raises your local property taxes. As mayor, Joyce focused on creating good-paying jobs and supported hundreds of small businesses opening. Joyce’s office led the application of a competitive federal grant and Manchester was the only municipality in the entire country to win, bringing $44 million to the state. This grant will foster the innovative bio-manufacturing industry and will help create nearly 10,000 direct jobs and more than 40,000 indirect jobs in New Hampshire. In 2023, Joyce led an effort to designate southern New Hampshire as the ‘ReGen Valley’ Tech Hub, this resulted in an additional $44 million coming to New Hampshire for economic development. Joyce’s office also helped secure $24 million for infrastructure and $20 million for a new transportation hub from the federal government. Joyce supported working families in Manchester by establishing a $15 minimum wage for all full-time city and school district employees. As Governor, Joyce will continue to support working families by supporting innovative industries, opposing so-called “right-to-work” legislation, increasing the minimum wage, increasing access to quality affordable health care, and combating the housing crisis. Joyce’s commitment to working families has earned her the endorsement of 18 major labor organizations including the New Hampshire AFL-CIO, Teamsters, AFSCME, New Hampshire Building Trades, Carpenters, IBEW, and more. Tackling the Housing Crisis Hardworking families, young people, and seniors are struggling to find affordable housing in our state, and this crisis will only get worse unless we act. New Hampshire is on track to need 60,000 new housing units by 2030 to meet demand. We need to encourage development and provide the resources necessary for cities and towns across our state to build housing that meets the needs of their community. Failing to address the housing crisis will push workers and families from our state, exacerbating New Hampshire’s workforce shortage. As Mayor, Joyce has the hands-on experience of working with developers in Manchester to deliver over 2,000 units, including more than 500 affordable units and broke ground on one of the largest affordable housing developments in state history. Joyce allocated more than $30 million to housing initiatives and started the first comprehensive review of zoning in decades. As Governor, Joyce will act with urgency to deliver more homes for hardworking families and cut the red tape to help build more housing. Protecting and Expanding Reproductive Freedom Joyce Craig is the only candidate for Governor with a comprehensive plan to protect and expand access to reproductive health care. Joyce’s first TV ad highlighted Joyce’s personal story of needing reproductive health care following a miscarriage. In states across the country, extreme abortion bans are putting women’s lives at risk. Following the overturn of Roe v. Wade, Governors are the last line of defense. As Governor, Joyce will codify Roe v. Wade to ensure that Granite Staters are able to access reproductive health care and abortion in New Hampshire. Read Joyce’s full reproductive rights plan Read Joyce’s Union Leader Op-Ed: ‘I’ll Always Protect Reproductive Freedom’ Strengthening Public Education Joyce first got involved in public service when she ran for school board when her children were in elementary school. Joyce is the proud parent of a public school teacher and knows how hard our educators work to support and educate our children. Joyce knows that public education creates opportunities for our students and it is still one of the core issues that drives Joyce’s service. As Mayor, Joyce took action to improve Manchester’s public schools. Joyce implemented the first standardized curriculum for K-12, lowered class sizes, started the state’s first dual-language immersion program, raised teacher pay and increased training and professional development opportunities for educators. Joyce believes that public tax dollars should go towards public education and opposes the state’s runaway school voucher program that is costing taxpayers millions of dollars for private and religious schools. Joyce also believes we need a Commissioner of Education that believes in public education and won’t undermine our educators. As Governor, Joyce will work to strengthen our public schools so that every child, no matter where they live, can receive a quality public education. Lowering Energy Costs and Protecting our Environment New Hampshire has some of the highest energy costs in the entire country, impacting hardworking families and small businesses. New Hampshire needs to take a comprehensive approach to lower costs, diversify our energy portfolio, and protect our environment for future generations. We need to transition away from fossil fuels, encourage clean and renewable energy development, expand proven cost-saving initiatives for residents such as energy efficiency programs, and pursue off-shore wind development. These initiatives will save residents money and are the right approach to help mitigate the climate crisis. Joyce has a proven record of expanding clean energy and lowering costs for residents. Under her leadership, Manchester built the largest municipal solar array in the state, saving taxpayers money on energy costs and reducing the city’s carbon emissions by 60%. As Governor, Joyce will also take action to protect our state’s natural resources. Joyce believes we need to address the PFAS contamination crisis and hold polluters accountable, and we need a moratorium on new landfill siting while we review and update state regulations. This past year has shown that we need to look at climate resiliency when building and updating our infrastructure. Flooding in western and northern New Hampshire and on the seacoast have shown that our state’s infrastructure is not prepared to deal with the increasing severity of climate-related storms. Public Safety and Reducing Gun Violence Nothing is more important to Joyce than ensuring our communities and residents are safe. As Mayor of Manchester, Joyce worked closely with the Manchester Police Department to implement data-driven solutions to public safety concerns. Joyce increased the Manchester police complement to the largest in city history, increased training for police officers, implemented police-worn body cameras, established more community policing efforts, and launched the city’s first gun violence reduction strategy. Joyce also increased community resources and hired community health workers to help respond to non-violent incidents. These initiatives led to a nearly 40% reduction in violent crime during Joyce’s tenure and it is the same approach she will take to public safety as Governor. Joyce also understands the serious threats to public safety caused by New Hampshire’s weak gun safety laws. Joyce will work to pass common-sense gun safety legislation to keep our communities, children, and families safe from gun violence. Read Joyce’s full gun violence prevention plan Combating the Opioid, Mental Health, and Homelessness Crisis New Hampshire has grappled with the opioid crisis that has impacted every community and countless families in our state for nearly 30 years. This public health crisis has exacerbated the mental health and homelessness crises in our state and Joyce believes we need to take a comprehensive approach to address these challenges. When Joyce first took office in Manchester, it took someone seeking recovery two to three weeks to be connected with services, in Joyce’s first month she was able to bring that time down to two to three days. Joyce implemented the state’s first harm reduction strategy, and hired an overdose prevention officer to help coordinate the city's response to this crisis. During her tenure, Joyce helped reduce opioid overdoses by 15%. As Governor, Joyce will ensure that the programs implemented by the state are data-driven and focused on getting individuals connected to the services they need. As Governor, Joyce will take a housing-first approach to addressing the homelessness crisis in our state. She understands that in order to stabilize an individual experiencing substance misuse disorder or mental health issues, you need to first ensure they have a stable place to live. Joyce believes we need more beds for people experiencing a mental health crisis, and we need to attract more mental health professionals to our state. As Mayor, Joyce opened the state’s first city-run and funded homeless shelter, partnered with the National Alliance to End Homelessness, and hired a Director of Housing Stability to reduce homelessness and provide people with the support they needed to find a safe home. As a result of these initiatives, Joyce helped reduce homeless encampments in Manchester by 70%. Defending Our Right to Vote Voting rights in New Hampshire have faced countless challenges as Republicans have focused on passing legislation to make it harder for Granite Staters to participate in our democracy. Republicans have even passed legislation that would require Granite Staters to provide proof of citizenship, such as a passport or birth certificate, preventing eligible voters who may not have access to these documents from registering to vote. As Mayor, Joyce took action to protect our voting rights and help more eligible voters participate in our elections. She implemented electronic voting checklists to speed up voting, translated voting materials into multiple languages, and modernized outdated voting machines. Manchester also ran voter registration drives in underrepresented communities, offered free rides to the polls on city buses on Election Day, and ran absentee ballot programs for senior living facilities. Joyce believes we should make voting easier for all eligible voters and pass online voter registration, no-excuse absentee voting, supports an independent redistricting commission, and ensure that our elections remain safe from interference by improving and updating our election infrastructure. Legalizing Cannabis Joyce believes it is past time to pass cannabis legalization in New Hampshire. Joyce favors a model that encourages small businesses and entrepreneurship, allows limited homegrow for patients, and protects medicinal marijuana. As Governor, Joyce will work with legislators to implement a system that works for New Hampshire and will help bring in revenue that we are losing to surrounding states that have all legalized recreational marijuana.	”
—Joyce Craig’s campaign website (2024)

Campaign finance summary

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Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.

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Joyce Craig campaign contribution history

Year	Office	Status	Contributions	Expenditures
2024	Governor of New Hampshire	Lost general	$7,927,269	$0
Grand total			$7,927,269	$0
Sources: OpenSecrets,  Federal Elections Commission ***This product uses the openFEC API but is not endorsed or certified by the Federal Election Commission (FEC).

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