In her decades of public service in Concord, Tara Reardon has held the titles of county commission chair, city councilor, school board member, state representative and commissioner of the department of Employment Securities. With a roughly 27 percentage point win over Republican Pam Ean on Tuesday, she can now add state senator to the list.

“I appreciate the voters of Concord and Bow and Hopkinton having the confidence in me to send me back to an even bigger job in the State Senate,” Reardon said at City Hall Tuesday night.

Reardon’s win over Ean was never expected to be close — after redistricting, this seat went to the Democrat by a 30 percentage point margin two years ago — but she came into the general election from a tight battle in the primary. With all three Democrats in that race outlining similar legislative priorities — including increases to the housing supply, access to reproductive healthcare, and childcare affordability — Reardon leveraged her experience and local connections to win the race.

Those connections in Concord were what won over Gloria Narcisi, a Democrat who lives on the Heights. She backed Reardon in both the primary and the general election because of positive recommendations from friends.

“I don’t know much about her,” Narcisi said of Reardon. “But I just heard really good things in my circle of friends.”

Despite several open races, it appears Reardon is headed into a continued minority in the Senate. Republicans held a 14-10 majority in the last term.

During the campaign, Reardon supported state subsidies for childcare, state-led loosening of zoning rules, the legalization of recreational marijuana, adding a guarantee to the right to an abortion before 24 weeks and repealing the 24-week cutoff in current state law. She also opposed the state’s school voucher program and the introduction of sales, income or capital gains taxes.

Housing would be her first priority in the new term, she said. She’s optimistic about making progress on that issue because it is one both Democrats and Republicans have cited as a priority and one she worked on during her years with New Hampshire Community Loan Fund.

Reardon was challenged by her primary opponents as to whether a new conflict of interest law would restrict her participation in the legislative process on key issues because her spouse is a State House lobbyist. She has maintained it would not limit her. The Legislative Ethics Committee declined to weigh in before she had taken office, meaning she could face more questions on the issue once seated.

She was complimentary of how the committee handled it.

“I don’t think anybody really understood HB 1388 until the Ethics Committee brought that out — it was really about legislators who were lobbying at the time,” she said.

Reardon has said she is opposed to landfill expansion and her husband lobbies on behalf of Casella, which is trying to build a new waste facility in the North Country.

“I’m not worried about it at all, I certainly will participate in everything that I possibly can,” she said. “I think it’s worth going back to the ethics committee and asking them if they’re interested in further defining that to give a little bit more guidance, and I’ll follow whatever the rules are that they have.”

Reardon succeeds outgoing two-term Senator Becky Whitley, who opted not to seek re-election even after dropping her brief bid for Congress. Reardon herself will be succeeded on the Merrimack County Commission by Steve Shurtleff, a former House speaker who is retiring from the chamber after 20 years in the house.

Catherine McLaughlin can be reached at cmclaughlin@cmonitor.com