Naval Reserves Captain Launches Second Bid For U.S. Congress

CONCORD, NH — A capital city Republican and former state representative is giving electoral politics on the regional level another shot by seeking the GOP nomination to Congress to face off against U.S. Rep. Ann McLane Kuster, D-NH. Lynne Blankenbeker made the announcement Tuesday that she be a candidate next in the Republican primary for the 2nd Congressional District, saying it was time for the district to have a someone who will not only represent constituents but also work with President Donald Trump on public policy.

"Ann Kuster has made a career of hiding from her constituents and now admits that she runs and hides from Nancy Pelosi, all while cozying up to the radical left in her party," Blankenbeker said. "I have spent my entire life running toward the fight and will fight every day for the taxpayers of New Hampshire."

If elected, Blankenbeker says she will "deliver real solutions" to fix the country's broken health care system, stop illegal immigration, protect 2nd Amendment rights, and ensure the men and women in the armed services have the resources to keep the nation safe.

"It's time we elect a Congresswoman who will fight for New Hampshire," she added.

Blankenbeker's Political History

Blankenbeker served as the state representative after winning a special election in 2010, and ousting a long-time representative at the time, Jim MacKay, a liberal Republican and former mayor who lost re-election in 2008 but switched parties and attempted to regain a seat in the Legislature. At the time, she was the only Republican state representative in the city … and there hasn't been one elected since. MacKay was later re-elected to the seat after Blankenbeker declined to run again since she was being called to work in the Pentagon after being deployed to Afghanistan.

She placed third in the GOP primary in 2018, garnering more than 9,800 votes or about 23 percent. Steve Negron, a Republican from Nashua, won the nomination that year with 26 percent of the vote (slightly more than 11,000 votes). Dr. Stewart Levenson of Hopkinton missed winning the nomination by 309 votes. Bob Burns, Brian Belanger, Jay Mercer, and Gerard Beloin were all also on the ballot.

Blankenbeker bested the other candidates in the city of Concord, but Negron won Nashua and a number of other towns in the western part of the state. Levenson performed best in western New Hampshire towns, the Upper Valley, and the North Country.

Kuster though shellacked Negron in the general election by more than 35,000 votes, and spent more than $3.3 million on her re-election compared to Negron's $465,000. Libertarian Justin O'Donnell received more than 6,200 votes.

Negron is also running again in 2020, according to Ballotpedia.org. On Thursday, he welcomed her to the race.

"I welcome Lynne into the race for Congress again," Negron said in a statement. "Anyone has the right to pay $50 and run. Our focus is Ann Kuster."

Can She Or Any Republican Win In 2020?

The 2nd Congressional District has historically been a lean-Republican district. Between 1912 and 1990, not a single Democrat held the seat, until Dick Swett of Bow, was elected. Swett's election change the district to a toss-up seat for about a decade.

Due to the changing demographics of the state as well as gerrymandering during the previous redistricting, it is now a more Democrat friendly district when compared to the 1st Congressional District. Even though there are more registered Republicans in New Hampshire than Democrats, the district has slightly more registered Democrats. The tens of thousands of undeclared voters are hard to track but have tended to trend more liberal-to-moderate than moderate-to-conservative in recent election cycles.

This means that 2020 will probably be an uphill battle for Republicans next year.

Although Blankenbeker's military history and gender could be a factor in the race. If she wins the primary, Blankenbeker will only be the second woman in history nominated by Republicans (Jennifer Horn, the former NH GOP chairwoman, was nominated in 2008, and was crushed by Concord Attorney Paul Hodes by more than 50,000 votes that year).

The last Republican to hold the seat was Charlie Bass, a relatively liberal Republican from a historic New Hampshire family, who was first elected in 1994. He was easily re-elected until 2006 when Hodes rode a wave of anti-George W. Bush sentiment to win the seat. Hodes decided to run for the U.S. Senate in 2010. He won the nomination but was easily defeated by then NH AG Kelly.

Bass then decided to try and seek his old seat and was barely able to defeat Kuster by around 3,500 in 2010, despite the anti-Barack Obama/Tea Party wave happening across the country. Two years later, Kuster easily beat Bass by around 5 percent, a nearly 20,000 vote gain between elections, according data and figuring for turnout increases (Kuster earned nearly 70,000 more votes in 2012 than she received in 2010 while Bass earned 45,000 more votes in 2012 than 2010).

The district is also considered by most political commentators to be a lean-to-safe Democrat seat.

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