New Hampshire gubernatorial election, 2014

New Hampshire's 2014 elections U.S. Senate • U.S. House • Governor • State Senate • State House • Candidate ballot access

New Hampshire Gubernatorial Election

Primary Date: September 9, 2014

General Election Date: November 4, 2014

November 4 Election Winner: Maggie Hassan

Incumbent prior to election: Maggie Hassan

New Hampshire State Executive Elections Governor

Battleground Races New Hampshire House of Representatives New Hampshire State Senate

Divided government

State executive offices in New Hampshire

The New Hampshire gubernatorial election took place on November 4, 2014. Incumbent Maggie Hassan (D) won re-election to another two-year term against Republican candidate Walter Havenstein.

A primary election is an election in which registered voters select a candidate that they believe should be a political party's candidate for elected office to run in the general election. They are also used to choose convention delegates and party leaders. Primaries are state-level and local-level elections that take place prior to a general election. New Hampshire uses a semi-closed primary system. Unaffiliated voters may vote in the primary, but in order to do so, they have to choose a party before voting. This changes their status from unaffiliated to affiliated with that party unless they fill out a card to return to undeclared status.^[1][2][3]

For information about which offices are nominated via primary election, see this article. The primary was held September 9, 2014.

The gubernatorial race was not the only race on the November ballot that could have shifted the balance of power in New Hampshire. The New Hampshire House of Representatives and New Hampshire State Senate were identified by Ballotpedia as two of the top 20 legislative chambers to watch in 2014. The governor's office and both legislative chambers were not held by the same party after the election, preventing the state from becoming a state government trifecta. Learn more about the state's most competitive legislative races in 2014 on the battleground chambers page.

Candidates

General election

Maggie Hassan - Incumbent
Walt Havenstein^[4]

Lost in primary

Ian Freeman^[5]
Clecia Terrio^[5]
Daniel Greene^[5]
Andrew Hemingway - former campaign manager for Newt Gingrich^[6]
Jonathan Smolin^[5]

Did not file

Brad Cook - attorney at Sheehan Phinney, secretary of the Business and Industry Association of New Hampshire^[7]

Withdrawn candidates

George Lambert - member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives, representing Hillsborough 44^[8][9]

Results

General election

Governor of New Hampshire, 2014
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Democratic	Maggie Hassan Incumbent	52.5%	254,659
	Republican	Walter Havenstein	47.3%	229,596
	Nonpartisan	Scattering	0.2%	907
Total Votes				485,162
Election results via New Hampshire Secretary of State

Primary election

Democratic primary

Governor of New Hampshire, Democratic Primary, 2014
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Maggie Hassan Incumbent	94.2%	39,185
Ian Freeman	4.1%	1,719
Clecia Terrio	1.7%	704
Total Votes		41,608
Election results via New Hampshire Secretary of State.

Republican primary

Governor of New Hampshire, Republican Primary, 2014
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Walter Havenstein	55.7%	62,766
Andrew Hemingway	37.3%	42,005
Daniel Greene	4.8%	5,362
Jonathan Smolin	2.3%	2,620
Total Votes		112,753
Election results via New Hampshire Secretary of State.

Debates

August 12 Republican debate

Republican candidates Walter Havenstein, Andrew Hemingway and Jonathan Smolin debated economic policy and casino gambling at Franklin Pierce University. Havenstein argued for a reduced tax on business profits and budget cuts that he claimed would produce 25,000 jobs by 2017. Hemingway proposed a flat income tax rate, a decreased corporate tax rate and reducing regulations to strengthen businesses. Smolin suggested that the state could reduce or eliminate college tuition to keep young workers in New Hampshire.^[10]

The three primary opponents disagreed on the prospect of casino gambling in the state. Havenstein argued against casinos on the grounds that they wouldn't significantly improve the economy. Hemingway was more amenable to casinos, suggesting that current groups that run charity gambling operations could oversee new casinos. Smolin voiced support for a small number of casinos to provide a boost to New Hampshire's economy.^[10]

All three candidates found consensus in their opposition to the Affordable Care Act and support for school choice in New Hampshire public schools.^[10]

Polls

General election

Primary election and hypothetical match-ups

Due to the nature of the match-up poll. A value of 0 was given to candidates not included in that round.

Campaign media

Maggie Hassan

Walt Havenstein

Outside organizations

National Rifle Association

Republican Governors Association

Past elections

2012

Governor of New Hampshire General Election, 2012
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Democratic	Maggie Hassan	54.7%	378,934
	Republican	Ovide Lamontagne	42.6%	295,026
	Libertarian	John J. Babiarz	2.8%	19,251
Total Votes				693,211
Election results via New Hampshire Secretary of State

2010

Governor of New Hampshire, 2010
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Democratic	John H. Lynch Incumbent	52.6%	240,346
	Republican	John Stephen	45%	205,616
	Libertarian	John J. Babiarz	2.2%	10,089
	Nonpartisan	Scattering	0.1%	537
Total Votes				456,588

Voter turnout

Political scientist Michael McDonald's United States Elections Project studied voter turnout in the 2014 election by looking at the percentage of eligible voters who headed to the polls. McDonald used voting-eligible population (VEP), or the number of eligible voters independent of their current registration status, to calculate turnout rates in each state on November 4. He also incorporated ballots cast for the highest office in each state into his calculation. He estimated that 81,687,059 ballots were cast in the 50 states plus the District of Columbia, representing 35.9 percent of the VEP.^[11] By comparison, 61.6 percent of VEP voted in the 2008 presidential election and 58.2 percent of VEP voted in the 2012 presidential election.^[12]

Quick facts

• According to PBS Newshour, voter turnout in the 2014 midterms was the lowest since the 1942 midterms, which took place during the nation's involvement in World War II.^[13]

• Forty-three states and the District of Columbia failed to surpass 50 percent turnout in McDonald's analysis.

• The three states with the lowest turnout according to McDonald's analysis were Texas (28.3 percent), Tennessee (28.6 percent), and Indiana (28.8 percent).

• Maine (58.5 percent), Wisconsin (56.5 percent), and Colorado (54.5 percent) were the three states with the highest turnout.

• There were only 12 states that increased voter turnout in 2014 compared to the 2010 midterm elections.^[14]

Note: Information from the United States Elections Project was last updated on December 16, 2014.

Campaign finance

Comprehensive donor information for this election has been collected by Follow the Money. Based on available campaign finance records, the candidates raised a total of $5,148,683 during the election. This information was last updated on May 7, 2015.^[15]

Campaign Contribution Totals
Candidate	Office	Result	Contributions
Maggie Hassan	New Hampshire Governor		$2,791,681
Walter Havenstein	New Hampshire Governor		$2,248,955
Andrew Hemingway	New Hampshire Governor		$106,903
Jonathan Smolin	New Hampshire Governor		$1,144
Daniel Greene	New Hampshire Governor		$0
Ian Freeman	New Hampshire Governor		$0
Clecia Terrio	New Hampshire Governor		$0
Grand Total Raised			$5,148,683

Key deadlines

Ballotpedia reports

To learn more about developments in this race, check out the following news articles from Ballotpedia:

• New Hampshire state executive primary elections review: Hassan, Havenstein cruise by opposition on the way to November matchup

Recent news

This section links to a Google news search for the term "New + Hampshire + Governor + election + 2014"

See also

• Governor of New Hampshire
• New Hampshire state executive official elections, 2014
• State executive official elections, 2014

External links

Suggest a link

• Office of the Governor of New Hampshire

Footnotes

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