While both would be first-time representatives, Tom Brennan and Jason Quinno both say they have the lived experience to represent the city of Concord in the state Legislature.
The two Democratic South End residents are vying to represent Concord Wards 5, 6, 7 and 8 — most of the southern and western parts of the city — as four-term Rep. Gary Woods steps down.
With an insider-outsider and a generational divide in the race, Brennan sees the contest as about professional experience, while Quinno wants voters to consider policy and shared values.
In Concord, the winners of state-level Democratic primaries are heavily favored to win election in November. Currently, all of the city’s state representatives, its senator and its executive councilor are Democrats.
The winner of this primary will face Robert Washburn, a well-known former city councilor who took fourth in a five-way contest for at-large seats on the council last fall.
Brennan, in his twelfth year on South Street, is no stranger to government, having spent time as a state legislative consultant, a senatorial speechwriter, a school board member in New York and a campaign finance activist with the nonprofit Common Cause, he said. He also publishes an alternative newspaper, the Granite State Observer.
To Brennan, that experience equips him for the deal-making and battles of a state legislature.
“I’m certainly not a career politician,” he said, “but I think it’s a serious time, and I think it requires state legislators who have experience fighting these kinds of battles.”
Quinno is a student at New Hampshire Technical Institute — saving up with the aim of transferring into the environmental planning program at UNH — and an activist who said he has worked with the 50501 organization in planning Concord’s No Kings protests. Quinno thinks he meets the moment: representing the change and young voices that he thinks Democrats are looking for in Concord and beyond.
“In a state which has one of the oldest legislatures,” Quinno said, “I think we need new young candidates.”
The candidates don’t disagree on policies so much as priorities.
Quinno, who grew up in Chichester and moved to Concord after graduating high school five years ago, put housing availability and affordability at the top of the list, especially as it relates to the state’s economic future and ability to retain young adults.
“I think we’re all feeling it,” he said. “We have a less than half a percent housing vacancy rate in the city, and so that’s my top priority right now.”
As the state’s population grows grayer, Quinno added, ensuring that the state remains affordable and interesting to young professionals becomes an economic imperative. It’s an issue he feels primed to confront.
To Brennan, what he sees as extremism on the right is his most pressing concern. The state Legislature’s role in standing up to the Trump administration, including federal immigration enforcement, is paramount to him, and, inside the Statehouse, he vowed to push back against the aims of the Free State Project. He’s also worried about voter suppression at the state level.
“I’m running because I think this is an exceptionally serious time relative to the status of the federal government,” he said. “I think the executive branch qualifies as a criminal regime.”
Like many other New Hampshire Democrats, increasing state contributions to local public schools is a key issue for both candidates.
To Brennan, that means confronting “this ideological fetish the right wing has, which I think is really hostile to public schools,” he said.
To Quinno, education funding means compliance with the state Supreme Court’s ConVal decision, which found state education aid was far too small, as well as providing more affordably priced higher education options in-state.
“Every student deserves a fully funded education in the state,” he said.
Brennan framed Quinno as untested.
“He has, to the best I can discern, no relevant work experience or public service experience,” Brennan said. “I think what we need is people who have a track record, and I don’t think that affordability, or the attack on democracy or the attack on public schools is the province of any particular age.”
Quinno argued that he has experience where it counts: relationships with existing lawmakers and comfort speaking on the House floor. He also framed the race as about priorities, not just resumes. He thinks his affordability and housing-focused message is what his neighbors see as most pressing.
“I think you need to look at what our focuses are and see which one speaks to you the most,” he said.
