From the polls: Voters weigh ‘electability’ in primary

Primaries – especially for Democrats in these midterms – are often dominated by talk about that elusive trait: electability.

With a U.S. Senate race expected to be decided by a thin margin in November, Adam Pignatelli was primarily driven to choose a Democratic nominee based on who he felt was more likely to hold sway in a general election.

That meant casting his vote for four-term Congressman Chris Pappas.

“He’s got the experience, and he’s been there,” Pignatelli said.

In New Hampshire, Pignatelli said, name recognition and electability are synonyms.

“It takes a name to run in this state. We’ve already seen that,” he said, listing off a few well-known ones, like Shaheen.

When it comes to recognizable names, John E. Sununu, the frontrunner for the Republican nomination, certainly has one.

“I think Chris is going to have the best chance,” Pignatelli said of Pappas, because of his established presence. Still, he’s worried the race with the more progressive, Democratic Socialists of America-affiliated candidate Karishma Manzur, will be a close one — “especially after watching some of the debate the other night.”

Republican voters who cast their ballot for Sununu, like John Collopy of Hopkinton, cite his family’s long history in Granite State politics. Collopy said he knew the candidate’s father, prior governor John H. Sununu, and is “more familiar” with the family than he is with Scott Brown, the former Massachusetts senator.

“I think they’re good people,” Collopy said. “I think they will represent New Hampshire well.”

Brown’s military experience swayed some voters, like Arthur Bugby of Warner. Bugby served for over 30 years, he said, and takes a “law and order” perspective on governance.

“You tend to know people who have shared experiences, and we have shared experiences, and he seems like a good guy,” Bugby, 80, said of Brown. “He’s this disciplined ex-military guy, so it’s easy for me to align with somebody like that.”

The same was true for Sharon Horn of Weare. She’s new to New Hampshire and said she doesn’t know much about all the candidates, but she liked Brown’s support for the military.

Horn lives with her partner, Scott Richardson, who was also drawn to vote for a veteran — but as a Democrat, that came in the form of Congresswoman Maggie Goodlander, who is seeking re-election.

Horn and Richardson occupy opposite ends of the political spectrum. It makes for heated debates, they said, and, at times, extensive research to prove their partner wrong on any number of hot-button issues. 

Still, they believe they have more in common than not.

For one, they both want to see politics return to a state of decency. They spoke of hatred and extremes on either side of the political aisle.

“I’m disappointed in the rancor — the rancor and the ugliness that surrounds differing points of view now,” Horn said. “I think that’s where we find the center, is that we both are trying to stay away from that.”

Democracy in action

Primary elections usually see lower turnout than general elections, especially in a year where the White House isn’t on the ballot. But many residents, young and old, still made their way to the polls.

Tuesday’s primary was the first local election for Bella Fantasia. The 24-year-old from Warner said she never paid attention to local races before but realized that decisions on the state level are important.

For her, healthcare, data centers, women’s rights and LGBTQ+ issues were top of mind. She said she believed Manzur, running against Pappas on the Democratic ballot, embodied her beliefs the most.

“This past administration has really got young people kind of more aware that they need to go vote in small elections,” Fantasia said. “I usually only vote for presidents, but now I’m like, it matters in small elections for sure.”

In Henniker, the White Birch Center offered free shuttle services from Rush Square and Henniker Knolls — two neighborhoods with low-income and disabled residents — to the town’s polling location at Henniker Community School to give residents better access to voting.

Since the initiative is a relatively new one, only one person was serviced by the shuttle: 78-year-old Philip Meehan who lost his left leg in 2024 due to medical complications.

Meehan suggested the center offer these services and said he hopes more people take advantage of it when the midterm elections come in November. For him, Medicaid and Medicare, affordability and housing were his most important issues.

Rusty Gage, director of active living at White Birch, said removing barriers to voting is critical, especially for marginalized groups who may have a more difficult time going to the polls.

“There are few things in the American way of life more important than voting, and I know that sounds like a broken record, but the older I get, the more I feel it,” he said. “The more I visit around the world — I visited third world countries where people don’t have the right to vote — and so I just feel so, so, so strongly about making sure there are no blockages to people being able to vote.”