Before voting started at 7 a.m. on Tuesday, Nancy Calder, 79, arrived at Hopkinton High School to support the Democratic candidates running for office, hoisting blue placards in the chilly November wind.
“Voting is what we need to do, that’s my job as an American citizen,” said Calder, who has been voting since age 18. “Maybe one vote doesn’t count, but that’s my duty.”
She cast her ballot on Tuesday for Kuster.
“I just think Kuster works for New Hampshire,” she said. “She doesn’t work for power or herself.”
Later Tuesday morning, fellow Kuster came out to greet voters and supporters and cast her ballot with the other town residents.
Twelve hours later, after the polls had long closed, Kuster clung to a strong lead over Republican challenger Bob Burns.
“While we are still waiting for the final results to come in and for every ward and for every town to be counted, we feel awesome,” Kuster said to her supporters at her election nigh party in Concord. “What we need right now is patience and appreciation for our dedicated election workers who are doing their jobs all across the state.
As of midnight she held about 57.5% of the votes compared to 42.5% for Burns with half the votes tallied.
“While we wait, I have tremendous faith in the results of this election, and I feel very confident about the final count,” Kuster said. “Serving as your United States representative has been the honor of my lifetime, and I am eternally grateful for the trust that you have bestowed upon me to represent New Hampshire’s 2nd congressional district.”
Throughout the campaign, Kuster emphasized the need to reduce costs for New Hampshire residents at gas stations, grocery stores and pharmacies. She also touted her bipartisan accomplishments in Congress, including her work on addressing the opioid crisis through the Bipartisan Addiction and Mental Health Task Force and on providing health care for veterans exposed to toxic chemicals through the PACT Act.
“I’m running to lower costs, fight for our personal freedoms and keep our community safe,” Kuster said Tuesday morning in Hopkinton. “This is the Live Free or Die state. We don’t want the government making our personal and private decisions.”
This was Burns’ second attempt at running for New Hampshire’s 2nd Congressional District seat. He ran in 2018, but finished fourth in the Republican primary.
Larry Keniston, 65, a 30-year resident of Hopkinton, has missed a few elections throughout the years. He came to cast his vote in this election because he’d like to see the country go in a different direction than it is now.
Keniston has voted for Democrats previously, but this year he supported Republicans.
“One thing that attracted me to vote for Democrats is that they said they would stay out of foreign wars,” he said. “But turns out they love foreign wars just as much as anybody else.”
Instead of funding conflicts abroad, we should focus on securing our own borders, Keniston said.
