NH State Representatives Calvin Beaulier & Joseph Barton on Voter Needs During Primary Voting Day

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Published on Thursday, 10 September 2026 03:56
Written by Asher Ballantine

The primary results are in for New Hampshire, one of the last states to hold its primary, leaving a mere two months for candidates to begin their midterm bids proper. Many incumbents at the local level ran uncontested, but it was a tight race for others.

 

Particularly notable was the Democratic U.S. Senate primary, which saw a fierce fight between Chris Pappas and Karishma Manzur, with Pappas coming out on top with roughly 63% of the vote.

News7 spoke with some local candidates in the Littleton region on primary voting day, with the primary focus being voter needs and why voting matters more now than ever.

State Representative Calvin Beaulier spoke about affordability, a common topic among candidates across the country.

“Affordability is the number one thing everybody is really concerned with. The cost of housing, they’re concerned with the cost of gas, they’re concerned with groceries…”

State Representative Joseph Barton also spoke about the issues facing his constituents.

“I recognize those same problems and issues and the things that affect our pockets, like high property taxes, and getting involved in the government system from the inside. I started to see a lot of the problems that people complain about. And so government oversight is one of the things that I’ve been pushing hard for.”

As seen with many of the Town Meeting Day votes here in the Northeast Kingdom, local elections can come down to a handful of votes, and both candidates today emphasized this principle.

“It’s worthwhile to take a little bit of time, find out about the candidates, where they are on the issues. But especially some of these down-ballot races can be decided by one vote. And these down-ballot races that are decided by just a handful of votes—sometimes we have legislation that’s decided by one vote. So it really can make a huge impact. So I encourage anybody, if you’re interested in what’s going on, reach out.”