New Hampshire Governor Maggie Hassan joined Chris Ryan and Dean Spiliotes for an in-depth discussion of her governorship and her pursuit of the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Kelly Ayotte. The governor welcomed the opportunity to answer people who criticized her for spending too much time campaigning for senator rather than performing her duties as governor. While she happened to be out of state fundraising when the shoot out in Manchester occurred, Governor Hassan explained that she was in constant communication about the incident and that the criticism was unjustified.
Candidate Hassan was also eager to outline the principle differences between herself and Senator Kelly Ayotte. She accused Senator Ayotte of being more interested in doing the bidding of the Republican leadership in the Senate than serving the interests of the citizens of New Hampshire. Governor Hassan contrasted her own efforts to help the middle class by making college education more affordable by freezing state tuition rates to Senator Ayotte’s vote to cut Pell Grants and another bill which would allow people to refinance their student loans. The Governor was also critical of Senator Ayotte’s support of the Senate majority not acting on President Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court. Governor Hassan also pointed out that Senator Ayotte is against Roe v. Wade and has voted to defund Planned Parenthood.
Another fundamental difference would be that Maggie Hassan is a staunch supporter of Hillary Clinton. She believes that Secretary Clinton’s lifetime of service and results proves that she is more trustworthy than the presumptive Republican nominee, Donald Trump. Governor Hassan is determined to tie Senator Ayotte to Donald Trump. So far, Kelly Ayotte has qualified her connection to Trump by saying that she will support him but not endorse him.
Maggie Hassan is quite proud of her ability to reach across the aisle during her time as governor, and she listed a number of accomplishments. There have been many improvements to the infrastructure in the Granite State–the completion of I 93 for instance. The state’s unemployment rate is down to 2.9%. For three years running, New Hampshire has been the number one state economic strength, community safety, and quality of life.
