Travis Corcoran stood on the House floor, facing Deputy Speaker Steven Smith in front of hundreds of his fellow lawmakers.
“Representative Corcoran, by a vote of 288 to 54, the House of Representatives hereby censures you,” Smith said.
After the brief reprimand, Corcoran made peace signs as he walked back to his seat, and that was that.
The vote to formally censure Corcoran, a Weare Republican, followed two social media posts he made in March targeting other lawmakers — the latest in a long string of racist and inflammatory remarks he’s made online.
In one, he said Rep. Luz Bay of Dover, a naturalized citizen, should be deported. The other called for a “final solution for theater kids in politics” after a Jewish colleague, Rep. Jessica Grill of Manchester, invited lawmakers to a karaoke night. The phrase “final solution” was used by Nazis to refer to the genocide of Jews.
Lawmakers from both parties delivered scathing testimony at a public hearing last month, saying the posts threatened members of the House and failed to uphold the standard of elected office.
Corcoran doubled down, arguing his posts were intended as humor and that he didn’t know Grill was Jewish when he made them. In a floor speech ahead of the vote, he said the effort to censure him was not about antisemitism but “delegitimizing a Republican via social shaming.”
He urged his colleagues to vote for the censure, saying it would be a fitting end for what he’s characterized as a “comedy” and “political theater.”
“I have not apologized, and I will not apologize, because I’ve done nothing wrong,” Corcoran said. “It is the theater kids in this chamber who should apologize to me and to the people of New Hampshire for their failed policies and for their drama club antics.”
Censure is a middle-of-the-road punishment for a lawmaker. It’s considered more serious than a reprimand, which is essentially a House resolution, but is still a slap on the wrist compared to expulsion, which would’ve removed Corcoran from office for the remainder of his current term.
It’s also a rare move for the New Hampshire House, which sometimes admonishes but almost never takes action against lawmakers for their behavior. A small group of Republicans advocated against it, saying provocative speech comes with the political territory. To censure Corcoran, Orange Rep. Donald MacFarlane argued, would be to chip away at free speech.
“This House is being asked to establish a precedent more dangerous than any tweet, any insult, any reckless joke or any tasteless remark,” MacFarlane said. He said the voters of Weare should be trusted to judge their own representation in Concord.
Democratic Leader Alexis Simpson initiated the review.
“Representative Corcoran has the right to say hateful things online. No one is arresting him for his posts, but the House has freedom of speech, too,” Simpson said. “We have the right to condemn Representative Corcoran’s actions toward other members and to say that invoking genocide, hatred and discrimination has no place in our public square.”
The House rarely rebukes its own members, though two Democrats have faced lesser punishments this session. Rep. Paige Beauchemin of Nashua received a formal reprimand after flipping the bird at Gov. Kelly Ayotte during her State of the State address, and the speaker limited Newmarket Rep. Ellen Read’s access to the House chambers outside of session days for using profane language in a hallway outside of legislative meetings.
