Emmett Soldati figures his first question about the seat he's running for is the same as most voters. 

“What is the Executive Council?” 

Five years ago, then-councilor Andru Volinsky walked into Teatotaller Cafe in Dover, where Soldati is the owner, and told him he should run. 

“It was really through him that I got to learn what this unique element of our executive branch is,” he said. “Your executive councilor is your representation in the executive branch… you don’t just have to lobby the governor. You have someone that’s more local to you, to advocate and connect with, to build that relationship.”

Then,Soldati surmised more people knew the bright pink exterior of Teatotaller Cafe than his actual name. He ran for the Democratic nomination in District 2, which encompassed his hometown of Somersworth at the time, and lost the primary to Cinde Warmington.

But times, and territories have changed. Somersworth is now situated in District 1, after maps were redrawn in 2022, where Soldati is challenging incumbent Joe Kenney for his seat on New Hampshire’s Executive Council.

Since his first run, Soldati has opened two new cafe locations in Concord and Somersworth, shuttering the original Dover spot. Neo-Nazi’s have staged demonstrations outside during story hours with drag queens. And he sued Meta and won, after Teatotaller’s Instagram account was suddenly deleted, making national headlines.

Kenney, the Republican incumbent, hopes that his longstanding service in New Hampshire shows voters he can continue to deliver. He’s held the seat since 2014, with a brief hiatus when he was voted out for one-term in 2018. He’s also served in New Hampshire’s House and Senate beginning in 1994.

“Some of the experiences I’ve had as a municipal official is both being a 14-year state legislator that allows me to understand how I can advocate for my district, using the bully pulpit and using my experience of how the legislative part of state government works and how to advocate for those programs and resources that are needed in my district,” he said.

As lifelong New Hampshire residents, both candidates are looking to build off their history in the state. On paper their resumes have staunch differences – Kenney’s built on a career of legislative and military service, Soldati’s on entrepreneurship and community activism – but at the core, both candidates said service to others is driving their campaign.

“I just want to help people,” said Kenney. “Because 90 percent of the council’s work is pretty much nonpartisan, it’s the 10 percent you hear about.”

Kenney has a long list of the work he’d like to see through if re-elected, which includes the redevelopment of the Laconia State School, which was sold in September after the original buyer fell through. On the docket is also the construction of a new men’s prison in Concord, the Balsams Resort redevelopment in Dixville Notch, continued work on food security in Coos County the Veterans campus in Franklin.

“I’m really 1/5th of a lieutenant governor. If I get two people to vote with me, I’m half a governor,” he said. “I’m Clark Kent by day and Superman by night, if I have to. So it’s a lot of power but it needs to be used for the good of the public.”

Not to mention that next year will be a state budget year, and the first since 2020 where American Rescue Plan Act dollars are not supplementing state agencies. Crafting a budget will take fiscal responsibility and a sharp pencil, said Kenney.

The 10 percent – or headline moments from the council’s work this term – is where Soladti hopes to capitalize with a message for change. To him the council’s rejection of family planning contracts, which they’ve denied three times in the last year, strips funding for cancer screenings, STI testing and other healthcare needs far beyond abortion access.

He’s also critical of the council’s approvals for agency heads, namely Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut, and looks to the fact that the Executive Council will approve appointments for two Supreme Court Justice nominees, as a result of mandatory retirement laws.

“The best laws can be just totally uprooted by the worst leaders that aren’t committed,” he said. “I don’t want the legislature to have to put all these guardrails because we have these belligerent commissioners that need guardrails. I actually want to see vision and leadership and strategy and goals come from our commissioners.”

Driving through the district last year, Kenney put 60,000 miles on his car. Soldati knows all too well now that a trip from the top to the bottom of thedistrict takes three hours and 45 minutes.

As Soldati drives from the Lakes Region through the White Mountain National Forrest, he thinks about how the Executive Council can be a safeguard to protecting New Hampshire’s environment – with legislative debates over fertilizers, phosphorus toxins and cyanobacteria.

And to Kenney, catching Mount Choccura in the distance on the campaign trail surmises what he already knows – New Hampshire is a great state to grow up, raise a family, work and retire with strong leaders at the helm.

“Why mess up a good formula,” he said. “Let’s keep New Hampshire, New Hampshire.”