Maggie Hassan

Hassan speaking in April 2007.

Hassan first ran for the New Hampshire Senate in 2002 after Democratic Party leaders suggested she run.[5] She lost to incumbent Russell Prescott, 54% to 46%.[7] In 2004, she ran against Prescott again and won, 52% to 48%.[22] In 2006, she was reelected against Natalie Healy, 60% to 40%.[8] In 2008, she defeated Lee Quandt, 57% to 43%.[23] She served as the assistant Democratic whip, president pro tempore, and majority leader of the State Senate during her six years in office. She represented New Hampshire's 23rd district, which includes East Kingston, Exeter, Kensington, Kingston, Newfields, Newmarket, Newton, Seabrook, South Hampton and Stratham.

In November 2010, Hassan lost to Prescott in a second rematch, 53% to 47%,[24] as Republicans regained control of both the state House and state Senate.[25]

Hassan served on the Capital Budget Committee and the Budget Conference Committee.[26] She helped pass the 2008–09 budget.[27]

In 2008, Senate President Sylvia Larsen chose Hassan to serve as Senate Majority Leader, the number two position in the New Hampshire Senate. Larsen chose her for the position because she wanted someone who would fight to get the Democratic caucus to support the same agenda, sometimes creating friction between Hassan and her Republican colleagues.[28]

During her tenure as majority leader, Hassan had a major role in legalizing same-sex marriage in New Hampshire.[28] She presented three versions of a same-sex marriage bill, one of which narrowly gained enough support to pass both chambers.[28]

Hassan helped pass the 2010–11 budget.[29] This budget increased spending by over a billion dollars and contained 33 tax and fee increases, including taxing campsites like hotel rooms, a so-called "income tax" on New Hampshire business, and raising vehicle registration fees.[30][31][32]

• Capital Budget Committee
• Commerce, Labor and Consumer Protection
• Finance
• Public and Municipal Affairs (Chair)
• Energy, Environment, and Economic Development (Vice Chair)
• Internal Affairs Committee
• Executive Department and Administration Committee

A campaign sign for Hassan in 2014.

In October 2011, Hassan announced her candidacy for governor of New Hampshire.[33] She won the Democratic primary with 53% of the vote, defeating former state senator Jacalyn Cilley, who received 39%.[34] Hassan was endorsed by former U.S. President Bill Clinton.[35][9] Campaign themes included implementing the Affordable Care Act.[36]

In the general election, Hassan defeated Republican nominee Ovide M. Lamontagne, 55% to 43%, carrying every county in the state.[37] Matt Burgess managed her campaign and senior consultants included media consultant Joe Slade White.[38]

Independent expenditure groups spent more than $11 million on Hassan's behalf. Major financial support for her campaign came from the Washington, D.C.-based Democratic Governor's Association, the Service Employees International Union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, and the National Education Association.[39]

In June 2014, Hassan filed to run for reelection.[40] In August 2014, New Hampshire Attorney General Joseph Foster, a Hassan appointee, ordered her to return $24,000 in campaign contributions that violated New Hampshire campaign finance laws.[41] In October 2014, Hassan was ordered to return another $25,000 in funds a union donated to her gubernatorial campaign because the union had not properly registered with the state as a political committee.[42]

Hassan defeated Ian Freeman in the September 9 Democratic primary and Republican nominee Walt Havenstein in the general election, 52% to 48%. She carried seven out of ten counties.[43]

Hassan as governor.

Hassan was sworn in as governor for a two-year term on January 3, 2013. In December 2013, she was elected vice chair of the Democratic Governors Association.[44] That year, Hassan signed a bill creating a state sea level rise commission.[45][46]

During a conflict between two sides of the Demoulas family, which owns the Market Basket grocery chain, Hassan urged the family to resolve the dispute, which threatened 9,000 jobs in New Hampshire.[47]

In July 2015, Hassan vetoed a bill that would have removed the licensing requirement for carrying concealed firearms in the state.[48] In response to New Hampshire's opioid crisis, she appointed Jack Wozmak the state's "drug czar" in early 2015. He resigned one year later in response to complaints about his job performance.[49][50] Hassan also worked to preserve funding for Planned Parenthood clinics throughout the state.[51]

She resigned as governor at the end of January 2, 2017, to prepare for her swearing-in to the U.S. Senate. Senate president Chuck Morse became acting governor.[52]

Hassan campaigning at a Hillary Clinton rally in Manchester, New Hampshire, in October 2016.

On October 5, 2015, Hassan announced her candidacy for the U.S. Senate in 2016. She challenged Republican incumbent Kelly Ayotte.[53] The race was considered one of the most competitive U.S. Senate races of the year.[54]

Hassan was endorsed by the pro-choice Democratic political action committee EMILY's List, which also backed her two gubernatorial runs.[55] Hassan endorsed Hillary Clinton in the 2016 Democratic presidential primary.[56] She said climate change and reproductive rights would be her top priorities if she were elected to the Senate.[57]

On November 9, the day after Election Day, Hassan was declared the winner.[58] Ayotte conceded that evening, choosing not to pursue a recount.[58]

Hassan has announced her candidacy for reelection in 2022.[59] Many anticipated that Republican governor Chris Sununu would run against Hassan, but Sununu is running for a fourth term as governor instead of for Senate.[60] Hassan faces the Republican nominee, former general Donald C. Bolduc, in the general election.[61]

Hassan being sworn in to the U.S. Senate by Vice President Joe Biden.

On June 19, 2018, a congressional intern was caught on video yelling, "Mr. President, fuck you!", as Trump walked through the United States Capitol for a meeting with Republican congressmen.[62] On June 25, Hassan's office confirmed that a Hassan intern, Caitlin Marriott, was the person caught on video cursing at Trump. A Hassan spokesperson confirmed that Marriott had been suspended from her position for a week and was required to return her congressional intern ID badge.[63] Hassan refused demands that she fire Marriott.[64]

Hassan participated in a bipartisan Trump administration task force to support the reopening of the economy during the COVID-19 pandemic[65]

In 2019, former Hassan staffers Jackson Cosko and Samantha Davis pleaded guilty to federal crimes. Cosko pleaded guilty to five felonies; after being terminated from Hassan's staff, he illegally accessed Senate computers, obtained personal information about five Republican senators, and disseminated that personal information online because he was angry about the senators' roles in the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court of the United States. In June 2019, Cosko was sentenced to four years in prison.[66] Davis pleaded guilty to two misdemeanors in July 2019, acknowledging that she had given Cosko access to Hassan's Senate office after he was fired and had lied to investigators about it.[67]

Hassan was in the Senate chamber on January 6, 2021, for the 2021 United States Electoral College vote count when Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol.[68] After the Capitol was breached by rioters, Hassan, along with staff and other senators, was removed from the chambers to an undisclosed location.[69] Hassan called the event traumatizing, calling it an "insurrection" and "one of the grimmest days in the history of our country."[69][70] The following day, she called for Trump to resign, calling him "unfit for office".[70] She also called for an investigation into the lack of security, poor law enforcement response,[70] and how law enforcement treated the Trump supporters, which contrasted with the treatment of Black Lives Matter protestors.[69]

• Committee on Finance
  • Subcommittee on Energy, Natural Resources, and Infrastructure
  • Subcommittee on Health Care
  • Subcommittee on Social Security, Pensions, and Family Policy
• Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions
  • Subcommittee on Children and Families
  • Subcommittee on Primary Health and Retirement Security
• Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
  • Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Spending Oversight (Chair)
  • Subcommittee on Investigations
• Committee on Veterans Affairs
• Joint Economic Committee[71][72]

Hassan has a "D" rating from the National Rifle Association (NRA).[74] She supports a background check system to avoid gun sales to the mentally ill.[75] She was supported by Gabby Giffords and Michael Bloomberg in the 2016 election.[76]

In March 2018, Hassan was one of ten senators to sign a letter to Chairman of the United States Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Lamar Alexander and ranking Democrat Patty Murray requesting they schedule a hearing on the causes and remedies of mass shootings in the wake of the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting.[77]

In April 2022, Hassan called on the Biden administration to keep a President Trump-era immigration rule, known as Title 42, limiting migrants and asylum-seekers from crossing the southern border.[78]

In July 2019, Hassan cosponsored the Fallen Journalists Memorial Act, a bill introduced by Ben Cardin and Rob Portman that would create a new memorial that would be privately funded and constructed on federal lands within Washington, D.C. to honor journalists, photographers, and broadcasters who have died in the line of duty.[79]

As governor, Hassan signed legislation to legalize medical cannabis but said she would veto any bill that came to her desk to legalize recreational cannabis.[80] As of 2020, NORML, an organization that seeks legalization, gave Hassan a C− score as a U.S. senator due to her actions as governor.[81]

On February 3, 2021, Hassan announced she opposes raising the federal minimum wage to $15/hour as proposed in President Biden's American Rescue Plan legislation.[82] On March 5, 2021, she and seven other Democratic senators voted with Republicans to block raising the minimum wage as part of the legislation.[83][84]