AUBURN, N.H. - House Majority Leader Jason Osborne today pointed to the Democratic primary for United States Senate, where democratic socialist Karishma Manzur took nearly one in three votes against Congressman Chris Pappas, as the clearest available measure of what New Hampshire Republicans are running against this fall. Osborne thanked every Republican who ran on Tuesday, recognized the members who will not be returning to the House next year, and called on Republicans to unite behind the party’s nominees ahead of the November 3 general election.
“Nearly one in three Democrats who voted yesterday voted for a socialist. That is not a fringe and it is not a protest. It is a third of their party, roughly fifty thousand people, and every one of them will be on the rolls again in November,” said Osborne.
“Karishma Manzur told those voters exactly what she believes, and fifty thousand of them agreed with her. Chris Pappas is the nominee, and he needs every one of those votes to win. Anyone who thinks that leaves him free to govern like a moderate has not watched how this works.
“Republicans held a primary too, and ours is settled. To everyone who put their name on a ballot: thank you. Running for office is not easy. It asks something of your family, your time, and your privacy, and every Republican who was willing to do it deserves our gratitude, win or lose.
“I want to say something in particular to the members who will not be returning to the House next year. Some of you served for a term, some of you for decades. You cast the votes that eliminated the last personal income tax in New Hampshire, expanded Education Freedom Accounts, made the largest investment in public education in state history, brought real choice into health care, and made our Second Amendment protections the strongest in the country. That record belongs to you. It does not disappear because a primary went the other way, and neither does my appreciation for what you gave this state.
“Our job now turns to protecting and building on our successful record, because the people who want it gone just showed us how many of them there are. Democrats in this state proposed a billion dollar income tax on the steps of the State House and refused to vote for a constitutional ban on one. They would raise your taxes, raise your property taxes anyway, and pull children back into a system their parents did not choose.
“The next Republican majority will keep education dollars with the parents who earned them, keep opening health care to real competition, and hold hard limits on the local spending that drives property tax bills. We will do that work because we have done it before, and because the alternative is now standing in plain sight.
“So starting today, we work together. Whoever you supported in the primary, there is a Republican candidate in your district who needs doors knocked, calls made, and money raised between now and November 3rd. I will be on the road in the districts that decide the majority, and I am asking every Republican in this state to join me.
“We hold this majority together or not at all. Let’s go win in November.”
Jason Osborne is the Majority Leader of the New Hampshire House of Representatives and a state representative from Auburn.