FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

June 23, 2026 

CONTACT: vote@cindewarmington.com

MANCHESTER, NH — In Case You Missed It, new reporting from the Concord Monitor highlights a clear contrast in this year’s gubernatorial race: Democratic candidate for governor Cinde Warmington remains committed to standing up against Donald Trump, while Kelly Ayotte continues to avoid challenging the Trump administration even as Granite Staters get hurt. 

Ayotte declined to sit down with the Concord Monitor for its story. And when the Monitor filed a public records request seeking communications among Ayotte’s staff about the Trump administration, Ayotte’s legal counsel stonewalled, saying it would take “90 days” to identify and review the records. 

Unlike Kelly Ayotte, who is “riding on the coattails” of other governors’ lawsuits, Cinde “will actually stand up and fight for the people of our state, even when that means taking on somebody as powerful as Donald Trump.”

Read more here and below: 

Concord Monitor: When it comes to the Trump administration, Ayotte walks a fine line

• Gov. Kelly Ayotte had just made her way through a sea of supporters lining the halls of the State House and handed her declaration of candidacy to the Secretary of State, making her reelection campaign official.

• The question came as she faced a gaggle of reporters: If President Donald Trump came to New Hampshire, would she stand with him?

• Ayotte evaded it in a familiar fashion: “I’m standing with the people of New Hampshire, and I look forward to continuing to do that.”

• Such comments are emblematic of her approach to the president. During her 16 months in the corner office, the governor has walked a narrow line and, for the most part, steered clear of all things Trump.

• She’s a Republican seeking reelection in a swing state in a midterm year, when the political winds tend to favor the party that doesn’t occupy the White House. Democrats are expected to make gains across the country, and although Trump won’t be on the ballot, he still holds a grip on GOP politics.

• Ayotte’s history with the president is a complicated one. She withdrew her endorsement of Trump in 2016 after learning of his comments about groping women. Eight years later, during her 2024 gubernatorial campaign, she called him the “right choice” for the White House.

• [...]

• Her detractors, including her Democratic opponent Cinde Warmington, have criticized her for not doing more to publicly “stand up” to Trump.

• “We need a governor who will actually stand up and fight for the people of our state, even when that means taking on somebody as powerful as Donald Trump, and Kelly Ayotte is afraid to do that,” Warmington said in an interview last month.

• While answering questions from reporters recently, Ayotte told the Monitor her strategy for dealing with the White House depends on the situation.

• [...] 

• The governor’s office did not respond to an interview request for this story. In response to a public records request from the Monitor seeking communications among her staff regarding federal actions, Ayotte’s legal counsel said it would take 90 days to find and review those documents.

• [...] 

• One thing she rarely talks about, however, is national politics. Ayotte frequently abstains from opining on and almost never criticizes the president in the public eye, usually opting to address issues privately and acknowledge those maneuvers once the situation has been resolved.

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• Warmington has made it a cornerstone of her campaign to cast Ayotte as “afraid” and “incapable” of dealing with Trump.

• “What we have is other governors who are courageous enough to stand up and fight for the people of their state, filing lawsuits, winning those lawsuits, and that benefits all of the states,” Warmington said. 

• “She says that she is having these behind-the-scenes conversations, but I think what she’s really doing is riding on the coattails of other people who have the courage to actually do what needs to be done to fight for the people of their state.”

• [...]