Published: 4/3/2017 4:02:00 PM
Chris Sununu has barely served three months as New Hampshire’s governor, and Steve Marchand is already announcing his intention to run for the state’s highest office again.
In a fundraising email to supporters, the Seacoast Democrat knocked Sununu for “failing to lead on LGBTQ equality, and pushing tax cuts for a small number of large companies at the expense of everybody else.” He pledged to fix roads and bridges, work toward an affordable health care system and focus on education.
Sununu, a Republican, won his first two-year term last November. Marchand featured in the competitive gubernatorial contest, but lost the three-way Democratic primary to Concord’s Colin Van Ostern.
A former mayor of Portsmouth, Marchand tapped into voters’ calls for an outsider last election and was the only Democratic candidate who vocally backed Bernie Sanders’s presidential bid.
Marchand advocated legalizing and taxing marijuana and supported raising the gas tax to pay for infrastructure improvements, while opposing the death penalty. Marchand gained momentum in the weeks leading up to the Democratic primary, but finished a distant second.
Marchand is the first Democrat to jump into the 2018 contest for governor. The Republican Governor’s Association released a statement saying Marchand has a “long record of advocating and enacting tax hikes on New Hampshire citizens.”