Kelly Ayotte: A 1,017 Vote Senate Loss and a Comeback as Governor

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Kelly Ayotte was born in Nashua, New Hampshire, in 1968, attended Penn State and Villanova Law, and joined the state attorney general's office as a line prosecutor in 1998. She worked on the 2001 Dartmouth College murders, became deputy attorney general, and in 2004 was appointed by Governor Craig Benson as New Hampshire's first woman attorney general. Democratic Governor John Lynch reappointed her twice. She personally prosecuted the 2006 killing of Manchester police officer Michael Briggs, securing a capital conviction, and argued Ayotte v. Planned Parenthood before the U.S. Supreme Court. She won an open U.S. Senate seat in 2010 with backing from John McCain and Mitt Romney.

In the Senate from 2011 to 2017 she opposed the Iran nuclear deal and closing Guantanamo, backed an Obama clean power plan, and cointroduced the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act, while critics noted New Hampshire was the only New England state that did not join a multistate suit against Purdue Pharma during her time as attorney general. In October 2016 she withdrew her endorsement of Donald Trump after the Access Hollywood tape and said she would write in Mike Pence, then lost to Governor Maggie Hassan by 1,017 votes out of more than 700,000. She joined the boards of Blackstone and BAE Systems, and in 2024 endorsed Trump and defeated Joyce Craig to become governor.

• She served as the sherpa guiding Neil Gorsuch through his 2017 Supreme Court confirmation.
• A Washington Post report revealed Homeland Security plans for a detention hub in a Merrimack warehouse.
• Public records obtained by the ACLU showed the state's Division of Historical Resources had worked with DHS on the site.
• Acting ICE director Todd Lyons testified he had shared economic impact data with her, which she denied.
• In February 2026 she announced DHS would not move forward with the Merrimack facility.