Granite Staters will have a new governor in 2025. Gov. Chris Sununu is not running for reelection after eight years in office.
Leading up to the state primary on Sept. 10, we’re speaking with top candidates from both major parties in the gubernatorial race to hear where they stand on some of the biggest concerns on voters’ minds.
Read on for NHPR Morning Edition host Rick Ganley’s interview with Republican and former Senate President Chuck Morse.
What questions do you have for the candidates running for Congress and governor in the 2024 election? What issues do you want them to address while seeking your vote? Share your thoughts here.
Editor’s note: This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.
Transcript
Many voters that we've talked to are concerned about the high cost and low availability of housing in New Hampshire. What would you propose to do to make housing more affordable for people renting and buying?
On the campaign trail it actually is one of the top items that we hear about. And I think part of the problem here is how successful we've been in New Hampshire and growing our economy. People want to be in New Hampshire, and that's what we see happening.
As Senate president, I already started working on this because I really do think we don't want to override local control. We want to work with the communities that want to work with us, and we want to develop as fast as possible. So in those communities that want to work with us, we need to get the state to work in the same speed that they're working in with the developers, which I believe we need to do a lot of work on.
Are enough of those communities that are willing to work with the state, willing to work on zoning issues and so on?
I see it everywhere. Look at my home town of Salem, what we did down there, and it's a prime example of bringing water to a community. Infrastructure is the key with these communities that want to help develop roads, water. I think those are important things, and that's the system we set up. And we should reward those communities that want to do that by helping them with their infrastructure, and that'll do it in the fastest manner to get things built.
But you have said in the past you are worried about local control, you want those towns and cities that want to keep their zoning the way they have it. As a governor, can you do anything about that? Can you help those communities develop more housing, specifically, more low income housing?
I think it's working that way. Those communities that wanted to work with us are doing it. And they're coming up with different models everywhere we go. I go to Salem — that model is being duplicated in other spots in the state already where they're building mixed models, where they're building some retail in with housing to bring down costs. That's working for us. So I think those are the ways we have to work with the developers and work with the towns and get the job done. But you're seeing this throughout the state. And as we brought water lines throughout the state of New Hampshire, we're starting to see expansion everywhere.
Something else we've heard from voters – New Hampshire outlaws abortion after 24 weeks, with some exceptions, and reproductive rights or restrictions are a concern for many of the voters that we've heard from. Would you be in favor of any further limits to reproductive rights in the state?
Let me be clear what we did on abortion, because that was part of this, and I certainly did it in a manner where I care. I
worked with my wife, my daughter, the women in the Senate. We did not ban abortion in the first six months. We made sure that a woman had a choice with her doctor and her family on abortion. And in the seventh, eighth and ninth month, we said we will not have late term abortions in New Hampshire, and we protected the life of the mother.
But as governor, if lawmakers were to give you a bill that would further limit abortion, would you be in favor of that?
This is the first time in 50 years that we've passed an abortion bill in New Hampshire. It was the first time. I voted for it when I passed it, and I'd vote for that bill again.
(Editor’s note: Some other laws on abortion regarding parental notification have passed and then been repealed by legislators in the last 50 years, but no abortion restrictions were passed during that period.)
But further the restrictions, would you veto?
No, this bill that we passed, 80% of the public believes it's the right place to be. That's what I'd support.
(Editor’s note: Morse’s team did not respond to a request from NHPR to clarify this 80% comment. A New Hampshire Bulletin article fact checked the state Republican party’s statement that most voters support the state’s abortion law, finding that the study cited by the party did not directly ask people surveyed about the law. Read more here.)
I understand that. So what you're saying is further restrictions would not be on the table for you.
No, what I'm saying is to get 80% of the public to agree on anything in New Hampshire is a big deal. And I think where we position the state of New Hampshire right now is working for the state of New Hampshire.
I want to come back to infrastructure for a moment. You mentioned infrastructure being so important to developing towns and cities and housing. We've seen more flooding events happen in many towns and cities, particularly over portions of the North Country in recent years. As the climate is warming we're seeing more of these heavy rain events. What [role] would your office play in planning for a warmer, wetter future in New Hampshire? Specifically, the infrastructure in towns and cities that need to rebuild these roads and other infrastructure in town multiple times?
In the short term, it's really about these multiple time communities that have had to --
Towns get hit over and over again.
And they have very little access to funds up front to fix these problems. I saw in the budget process, this is an opportunity for us as a state to build funds to make them readily available until the federal government catches up to them. And in a lot of cases, that's happening in this state, [representatives] are working on legislation on that all the time. I think as governor, that's how we should prepare for this in the future is [to] make sure we have the opportunity for those communities to come to the state and borrow from us until they can get the federal funds in here to make the fixes that they need to make. And I certainly think there's some communities that have had multiple things happen in the same areas. So we have to be careful about how we're going to rebuild.
Every two years the governor has to craft that state budget that indicates their priorities. You've had a hand in state budgets now for the last 20 years. There are liabilities on the horizon — school funding, lawsuits among them. Are there new ideas that you would bring as governor to the next budget?
In building budgets I certainly enjoy that part of the process, and I think it's all factual. And you have to make sure you take care of the needs of the citizens of New Hampshire. That's how I've always built budgets. And [in] cutting taxes I think we've drove an economy and we've proved that we bring in more income. And when we started doing that in 2015, we started looking at it and saying, 'All right, let's cut taxes, but let's solve the mental health problem in the state of New Hampshire. Let's solve the disability problem in the state of New Hampshire.' And that's the kind of thing we have to do.
Are there places that you'd like to cut taxes, specific areas that you're thinking about right now, but still be able to hit those priorities that you want to take care of?
We need to finish the job on interest and dividends [taxes]. In 2025, that's when interest and dividends [taxes] are phased out. We need to make sure we do that. We want people to stay in New Hampshire. We don't want them packing their bags and moving to Florida to escape what was an income tax in New Hampshire.
We've had several years of budgets that were relatively easy, if you look at history. There are some liabilities to come in years to come. How do you craft a budget in leaner years?
Well, I did in 2011. We were $800 million in the hole. The Democrats had proposed 100 new taxes and fees. And we worked very hard to turn that around. We had to cut $800 million, and we got rid of every tax and fee. But that grew the economy over the last 13 years, and that's what you want to do. And it didn't just happen overnight. You have to stay consistent on budgeting.
Click here for interviews with all the top candidates running in New Hampshire’s gubernatorial race.
