NH 2026 Midterm Elections: Polls Begin To Close In Gubernatorial, Senate, House, And Legislative Races

CONCORD, NH — Polls have begun to close in New Hampshire, with results trickling in for the 2026 governor’s race as well as an open U.S. Senate seat, two Congressional seats, and down-ballot races for Executive Council, state Senate, state Representative, county offices, and two ballot questions, again proposing the elimination of the Register of Probate and hundreds of communities considering a two-year tax cap on education administration spending and holding school budgets to the inflation rate.

Statewide, Congressional Races

This midterm election was driven by two statewide races: an open Senate seat vacated by U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-NH, and a gubernatorial race, held every two years in the Granite State.

Republican Kelly Ayotte, a former U.S. Senator and state attorney general, who is fairly popular due to an independent streak and ability to keep the more conservative Legislature at bay, is seeking a second term as governor. Cinde Warmington is a former executive councilor who lost in the Democratic primary two years ago. Stephen Villee, a software developer with a mathematics degree from Harvard, is on the ballot for the Libertarian Party.

View all of the political coverage on Patch in New Hampshire here: NH Elections 2026.

Much of Warmington’s time has been spent trying to shake the “opioid lobbyist” moniker the incumbent hung on her early in the race. The Democrat blamed the incumbent for high housing and energy costs — expenses that existed before Ayotte was elected and reflect market forces and people wanting to move to the Granite State.

In the U.S. Senate race, U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas, D-NH, a former executive councilor who has served in Congress for four terms, is seeking a promotion to the six-year term body, while Republican John E. Sununu, who held the seat from 2002 to 2008, is trying to return. Edmond Laplante, the longtime state chairman of the Constitution Party and a school board member for SAU 93, is also on the ballot.

Both major party candidates won somewhat brutal primaries to then bombard each other — with Pappas and his surrogates attempting to tie Sununu to President Donald Trump, targeting him for his work as a lobbyist and a one-sentence mention in the Epstein files, while the Republican and his allies countered Pappas had not done much of anything beyond raising taxes and voting in lockstep with Democrats like former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, nicknaming him “California Chris.”

The 1st Congressional District, like the Senate race, is also an open seat, with Stefany Shaheen, the senator’s daughter, and a one-term Portsmouth city councilor, facing off against Anthony DiLorenzo, the owner of the Key Auto Group, a large New England automotive dealership. Both candidates have also gone after each other after winning competitive primaries: Shaheen has tied DiLorenzo to an unpopular president, while DiLorenzo has accused Shaheen of taking a no-show job with Dean Kamen’s Advanced Regenerative Manufacturing Institute, which is federally funded due to her mother’s assistance.

The 2nd Congressional District race is a rematch of 2024: U.S. Rep. Maggie Goodlander, D-NH, and Republican challenger Lily Tang Williams. Independent Robbie Mahrou, a business consultant and entrepreneur, is also on the ballot. Goodlander, the daughter of Betty Tamposi, a former congressional candidate, shed her carpetbagger status by purchasing a house in Concord’s tony West End after being elected. Williams has run on similar themes as two years ago: fighting socialism, since she had direct experience with communism while living in China, and trying to preserve the American Dream for others.

Meg Hagaman, left, a candidate for county attorney, as well as Aaron Thompson, center, with his son, along with others, were outside the Ward 10 polling location in Concord. Credit: Tony Schinella/Patch

Regional, City Races

Voters also went to the polls to decide regional and city races.

Five Executive Council seats, a body that acts as a governor’s council and oversees contracts and other state functions, are also up for grabs every two years.

Voters in 10 New Hampshire counties will also decide who will be sheriff, county attorney, county treasurer, register of deeds, and register of probate.

The state also has 24 Senate seats and 400 representatives, the largest state lower house and second-largest governing body in the United States.

Voters will also get another shot at eliminating the register of probate position via Question 1.

Every community also has a two-year school tax cap proposal on the ballot with Question 2. If approved, the school tax cap limits administrative costs to 6 percent of each two-year annual budget and limits school spending to inflation and new construction. School building construction costs and other bonding are excluded from the cap. The tax cap can be overridden by ballot initiative.

The city of Concord also has competitive races in two of three zone board of education seats.

Outside the Ward 9 polling location on Canterbury Road, state representative candidates Andrew Georgevits and Kristopher Levesque asked for votes, while others offered support for other candidates. Credit: Tony Schinella/Patch

In Concord, turnout was heavy throughout the day, with ward officials believing they might set a midterm turnout record.

In 2022, 18,665 voters cast ballots, more than 71 percent of registered voters. In 2018, 58 percent cast ballots, 17,974 (2022 had a higher percentage of votes than 2018 because thousands of voters were purged from the rolls before the 2022 general election). Turnout for the 2014 midterm was 15,600 voters, or about 58 percent.

Turning Point USA had tents at many of the polling locations in Concord as part of the org’s Commit to Chase 100 Ballots Initiative. Some of the volunteers were from Arizona, Florida, and North Carolina. Many have been in the state for many months.

According to WMUR-TV, former New England Patriots player Rob Gronkowski was in Bedford and Goffstown as part of the effort, along with WWE Wrestler HHH Paul Levesque (now the chief content officer of WWE). Levesque, who grew up in Nashua, also visited polling locations there.

Danny Amendola was in Hampton at Winnacunnet High School, while Floyd Mayweather, the boxer, was in Hudson and Litchfield, according to posts on X. Former Boston Red Sox Infielder Kevin Youkilis was also seen in Hampstead.

According to the AP Voter Poll, nearly three-fourths of voters reported being “angry” or “dissatisfied” with the direction of the country. Most voters in the poll blamed President Donald Trump and his administration for high costs. Nearly 60 percent of voters said higher prices were “more because of Trump’s policies” rather than “more because of factors outside Trump’s control.”

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