Republican voters said they wanted a new face and a conservative champion. Democrats were looking for a known commodity.
Barely seven months after the presidential primary, the polls were quieter Tuesday as Granite Staters chose who would face off in races for governor, Executive Council, Congress and the state Legislature.
“There’s been so much focus on the presidential race that it’s completely overshadowed the other races,” Epsom town moderator Jeff Keeler said.
Over in Canterbury, state Rep. Howard Moffett, who is running for re-election, waved at voters, shook hands and did his best to be noticed outside town hall. He was glad voters came out, but said it’s no secret why some stayed away.
“I think, frankly, the two candidates at the top of the ticket are doing a great job taking the air out of the room for everybody else,” said Moffett, a Democrat.
While no one was casting ballots for Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump on Tuesday, work still needed to be done inside the voting booth.
Pembroke resident Sheila Renaud-Finnegan, 63, said she voted for Colin Van Ostern in the Democratic gubernatorial primary.
“It was a toss-up between him and Mark Connolly,” the clinical social worker said. The self-described “lifelong Democrat” said she ultimately decided on Van Ostern, a sitting executive councilor, because he has more political experience.
“It’s the November election that’s really most important,” she said.
Van Ostern was challenged by Connolly, a former deputy secretary of state, and former Portsmouth mayor Steve Marchand.
Tom Booth, 81, also of Pembroke, voted in the Republican primary and picked state Rep. Frank Edelblut for governor.
“Being a family man, I think he has the ideas that coincide the most with Republican viewpoints,” he said.
A retired art director in the advertising industry, Booth said abortion, gun rights and low taxes are the issues that mattered most for him. He didn’t like that Chris Sununu, an executive councilor and Republican candidate for governor, is pro-choice.
“I felt that he represented too much of a departure from a conservative viewpoint,” he said.
Edelblut and Sununu were joined in the Republican primary by Manchester mayor Ted Gatsas and state Sen. Jeanie Forrester.
In Allenstown, Shyla Hazen, 45, said education and health care were her greatest concerns. The self-employed single mother is in community college right now and helping her own son attend Plymouth State University. New Hampshire’s public university system has the highest in-state tuition in the country.
“It’s ridiculous how much it costs,” she said. Taking out a loan to help her son attend college was a “no-brainer,” she said, because at 19, that’s where he was supposed to be.
“We’re making the sacrifices. But it needs to be fixed,” she said.
Hazen said “none of the choices in the Democratic race are bad,” but that Van Ostern had probably won the day because she was able to see him speak multiple times.
“His tone, the way he spoke just resonated with me personally,” she said.
Debbie Sargent, 64, of Epsom said she would cast her ballot for Edelblut – a “fresh face.”
“We have people that have been in office for 40 years. And we seem to be getting worse as a country, not better,” she said.
The retired state corrections worker said unemployment and stagnant incomes were indicators the country was doing poorly, and said she didn’t support raising the minimum wage much.
“I think $10 is probably a more fair rate,” she said. Jobs that pay a minimum wage were never supposed to support whole families, she said, they were “intended to teach people how to work.”
As for the Senate race between incumbent Kelly Ayotte and Jim Rubens, Sargent was unsure.
“Part of me thinks Ayotte has been around for a long time. And she’s supported by big money,” she said.
Also in Epsom, Tracey Stephens, 54, and J.R. Stephens, 60, said they voted for Edelblut.
“I voted for Edelblut because he seems like a real person. Like me, a straight-talker,” Tracey Stephens said.
The accountant also said she had voted for Rubens over Ayotte.
“I feel that Kelly is not in touch with the people – how would you say, too politician-y,” she said.