Last week’s hearing for Rep. Travis Corcoran (R-Weare) was never about one social media post. It was about something much bigger: whether the New Hampshire House still has any moral line left to defend.
Last month, Corcoran posted that “we need a final solution for theater kids in politics.”
The phrase Final Solution is the Nazi term for the extermination of the Jewish people. Millions were murdered under those words.
More than 50 people attended his week’s hearing. Only one state representative, Matt Drew (R-Manchester), appeared in support of Corcoran. That fact alone told the story.
Corcoran’s defense was as unserious as the original post was offensive. He claimed that “a joke is now being treated as though it were an act of malice, and sarcasm is being recast as hate speech.” NHPR reported that his written testimony was topped with the words Kangaroo Court.
Corcoran took zero accountability for his actions. It was performance art in service of grievance politics.
This was not a one-time lapse. Corcoran has previously suggested that Rep. Luz Bay, a U.S. citizen of Filipino heritage, should be deported. He has trafficked in racist rhetoric about Black people. This was not his first rodeo with hate speech.
It is also worth noting how others in the legislature have been punished for far less.
Rep. Wendy Thomas was removed from committee leadership for having a “bad attitude.” Rep. Ellen Read was reprimanded for using the F-word in a hallway and later removed from the Housing committee. If every legislator who swore in the State House lost committee assignments, we would need to hold meetings in the parking lot.
Three other female state representatives who are Democrats were also reprimanded for minor infractions.
So here is the standard in today’s House: Women Democrats deemed to have a “bad attitude”? Punished. Democrats who offend leadership? Punished. A Republican invokes Nazi language? A slap on the wrist and business as usual.
Majority Leader Jason Osborne responded by saying that free speech includes speech people may find offensive, and that in a free society some people will be offended at times.
That misses the point so badly it’s almost humorous. No one is arguing the government should jail Corcoran. The question is whether the House of Representatives has enough self-respect to discipline one of its own for invoking genocidal language.
I spoke today about my Grandpa Max. He came alone to the United States at age 13, speaking no English and with no money. Later he learned that much of his family had been murdered in the concentration camps at Dachau and Auschwitz.
For families like mine, the phrase Final Solution is not abstract. It is not a joke. It is profoundly personal.
Others testified too. One man described being harassed by Neo-Nazis in downtown Concord. Several said they no longer feel safe in the rising climate of antisemitism here in New Hampshire. Imagine hearing that in our own State House and still treating this as a messaging mishap.
Here is what today made clear: Leadership has normalized behavior they would never tolerate from the wrong person.
My guess is Corcoran will not be expelled. He may be censured. He may be scolded. Then he will go right back to doing what he has always done.
And leadership will wonder why public trust keeps eroding in our state government.
Rep. Anita Burroughs represents Carroll 2 in the State House. She lives in Bartlett.