Kelly understands without public safety, there is no freedom. Her number one priority will be ensuring New Hampshire is the safest state in the nation.

As Attorney General, Kelly served as the state’s chief law enforcement officer and worked hand in hand with the police. As Governor, she will make sure that our law enforcement officers have the resources and support they need to keep criminals off our streets.

On day one, Kelly will work to strengthen penalties for heroin and fentanyl dealers. In particular, Kelly will work with law enforcement to prosecute dealers who come over the NH-MA border from the drug hubs of Lowell and Lawrence to the fullest extent of the law.

Kelly will end the revolving door caused by misguided bail reforms that allow dangerous criminals to remain free and harm innocent civilians.

Kelly understands in order to stop the increasing flow of heroin and fentanyl into New Hampshire, we must secure our borders. President Biden’s irresponsible open border policies have led to drugs and criminals continuing to flow across our borders. These drugs are trafficked into New Hampshire and are killing Granite Staters.

As a United States Senator, Kelly fought to increase funding for a border wall, advanced technology, and additional border patrol officers to stop illegal immigration.

While Joe Biden’s open border policies have led to an exponential increase of illegal crossings at our northern border, New Hampshire’s Border Patrol units in the North Country are severely understaffed. As Governor, Kelly will strictly enforce immigration laws throughout our state and provide additional resources for northern law enforcement to aid in immigration enforcement. 

Kelly will require businesses to use E-Verify, block any attempt to give driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants, and strictly enforce a zero-tolerance policy for sanctuary cities in New Hampshire.

New Hampshire law enforcement officers and first responders risk their lives every time they step out of their home and go to work. Kelly Ayotte has always, and will always, have their backs. 

Law enforcement officers are asked to do more and more every day, yet they are underpaid, understaffed, and treated as the enemy by the radical left. It’s no wonder that recruitment and retention of police officers is becoming increasingly difficult across the state.  As Attorney General, Kelly Ayotte stood shoulder to shoulder with New Hampshire’s law enforcement officers. In 2006, Kelly successfully prosecuted the horrific murder case of Manchester Police Officer Michael Briggs, resulting in a conviction and death penalty sentence for his killer. Kelly understands the risk that officers face every day and has seen the evil that they confront on the streets. 

New Hampshire has the best law enforcement and first responders in the country – to keep them, we need to treat them like it. As Governor, Kelly will fix the broken retirement system that has plagued recruitment and retention and work with state, county, and local law enforcement and first responders to find ways to increase recruitment and retention efforts. 

First responders endure trauma daily with constant exposure to stress and danger. We must not only stand behind our first responders while they are on duty, but we must provide resources for wellness initiatives to ensure that they have the programs needed to provide any needed help or counseling.

The heroin and fentanyl abuse crisis reaches every community in all corners of our state. It’s not a partisan issue – we are losing a generation of Granite Staters to addiction. Too many parents across New Hampshire have lost their sons and daughters to these deadly drugs.

The fight to end the drug crisis in New Hampshire must include care and support for those struggling with addiction. In the United States Senate, Kelly led the effort to pass the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act, which provided grant funding for drug prevention, education, and treatment programs. In New Hampshire, we must continue to improve our model while expanding coverage and outreach to those struggling.

At the same time, we need to stop the flow of illicit drugs into New Hampshire. As Governor, Kelly will strengthen the penalties for heroin and fentanyl dealers and put those who sell these deadly drugs behind bars.

Kelly is grateful for the men and women who serve in our United States Armed Forces and defend our freedom and way of life.

Coming from a military family, Kelly understands the sacrifices that our service members and their families make every day. Her husband Joe was an A-10 Warthog pilot who retired from the Air Force as a Lieutenant Colonel. Kelly and Joe were married right before September 11, 2001, and after they returned from their honeymoon, Joe deployed to the Middle East. Their daughter, Kate, is a Cadet at the United States Air Force Academy and Kelly’s grandfather served in the Army Air Corps in World War II. Kelly believes that we have a responsibility to ensure that every military family receives the benefits and respect they have earned.

In the United States Senate, Kelly served on the Armed Services Committee and Chaired the Subcommittee on Readiness. As a Senator, she was a leading advocate for the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard and the outstanding Granite Staters who work there. She also led the efforts in Congress to successfully ensure that New Hampshire’s 157^th Air Refueling Wing was the first Air National Guard base in the nation to receive the next generation KC-46A air refueling tanker.

Kelly believes that our men and women in the military deserve excellent health care, including mental health care. In the Senate, Kelly helped lead the effort to address New Hampshire’s long-standing inequity in veterans’ access to health care by expanding their ability to seek care from non-VA providers. Kelly also worked to expand veterans’ access to healthcare in the North Country, and to ensure veterans with severe traumatic brain injury in New Hampshire have access to residential rehabilitation services and community-based care.

We are blessed to have tens of thousands of veterans living in New Hampshire. They are amazing employees and citizens. Kelly will always honor and assist our veterans to make sure that New Hampshire becomes the most veteran friendly state in the nation. As Governor, Kelly will ensure that the New Hampshire Department of Military Affairs and Veterans Services receives additional support and facilitate better coordination with veteran’s service and non-profit organizations so every veteran receives the support they need.

New Hampshire is an island of economic hope in the tax-burdened sea of New England. Kelly Ayotte will protect our New Hampshire Advantage, make the Granite State more affordable for middle-class families, reduce the regulatory and tax burdens for our businesses, and directly recruit new companies from around the country to move here and create more good-paying jobs for Granite Staters.

Kelly helped her husband Joe start a small landscaping and snow plowing business which he owned and operated for over a decade. Kelly has spent the past several years working with companies in New Hampshire and across the country, including serving on the boards of BAE Systems Inc., New Hampshire’s largest manufacturing employer, and Cirtronics, an employee-owned manufacturing company in Milford. Kelly knows how important it is for New Hampshire to continue to improve our pro-business environment. 

Kelly will never allow an income or sales tax to be imposed in New Hampshire. She will cut burdensome regulations to give individuals more freedom and allow businesses to thrive and grow.

As Governor, Kelly will empower the private sector and explore new options to address the rising cost and shortage of housing across the state.

Granite Staters are suffering with skyrocketing health care costs. Kelly will fight powerful insurance companies and the ever-growing healthcare bureaucracy to increase transparency and competition in our state to create more affordable healthcare options for individuals and businesses.

Kelly understands fiscal responsibility is the key to maintaining the New Hampshire Advantage. In the United States Senate, Kelly voted to rein in reckless federal spending, ban earmarks, and fought for a balanced budget amendment. In Concord, she will deliver a responsible, balanced budget for Granite Staters.

Granite Staters have seen their energy bills rise at unacceptable rates. Kelly’s utmost energy priority will be reducing costs for Granite Staters. Kelly will take an all-of-the-above approach to lower energy costs while focusing on stability, affordability, modernization, sustainability, and market-driven solutions.

To stabilize future energy costs, New Hampshire must modernize our aging energy infrastructure and develop new sources that will help drive energy costs down. Using a technology-neutral approach, the focus will be lowering the price of energy – not pushing an ideology.

The best solutions don’t come from the government, they are market driven from the private sector. Kelly will cut the red tape and minimize government barriers to private-sector innovation for cost-effective energy solutions.

Kelly will fight for Universal education freedom because every child should have the same learning opportunities and chance at success, regardless of their zip code or family income.

As Governor, Kelly will enthusiastically work to pass and sign the Parental Bill of Rights. Parents have a right to decide what is best for their child – period.

A product of Nashua public schools, Kelly will prioritize making New Hampshire public schools the best in the country. Kelly will reward good teachers and recruit great ones by improving pay and benefits for high-performing educators who focus on academics and help children succeed. While rewarding good teachers, Kelly will not be afraid to hold educators and administrators accountable when they inappropriately bring politics or gender ideology into the classroom.

With schools closed during COVID-19, New Hampshire’s students suffered immeasurable loss of learning and social development. In the coming years, Kelly will focus on strengthening New Hampshire’s academic standards and bringing our students up to speed to make up for lost time in classrooms.

Children are in school to learn academics – not to be indoctrinated by ideologies. As Governor, Kelly will focus on letting kids be kids, and get back to the important basics of education, prioritizing math, civics, English, science, and history.

Kelly will fight to defend our rights and ensure we keep New Hampshire’s ‘Live Free or Die’ spirit alive.

Kelly was honored to serve as the “Sherpa” for Justice Neil Gorsuch, a Constitutional originalist, when he was nominated to the Supreme Court.

Kelly is a strong advocate and defender of our Second Amendment rights. In the Senate, Kelly protected our right to keep and bear arms and fought back against repeated efforts by the left to eliminate or diminish those rights. Kelly sponsored legislation to establish concealed carry reciprocity, so that our right to self-defense would be fully protected while traveling state-to-state. Kelly also fought back against Barack Obama’s plans to fund a United Nations Arms Trade Treaty that would have restricted the Second Amendment rights of American citizens. As Governor, Kelly will defend our constitutional carry status and block the Biden Administration’s efforts to infringe on the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding Granite State gun owners.

Many Granite Staters are struggling with or caring for a loved one struggling with mental illness. Kelly will work with advocates, health care providers, and mental health facilities to improve our mental health care system and ensure that we have sufficient treatment capacity and help for those who are suffering from mental illness.

To continue tackling the growing needs in our state for more mental health outpatient and inpatient services, we need to address the workforce shortage in the healthcare industry. We must attract and retain a high-quality workforce that includes more psychologists, counselors, nurses, and others to ensure Granite Staters receive the quality care they need.

Unfortunately, in New Hampshire, suicide is one of the leading causes of death for young people between the ages of 10 and 24. We must provide additional resources to increase training and awareness for recognizing signs of suicide and knowing how to help our loved ones.

Kelly has a longstanding commitment to improving our mental health system. In the United States Senate, Kelly led efforts to pass legislation on mental health first aid, providing support for training programs to help identify, understand, and address crisis situations safely. For her work to strengthen our mental health care system, Kelly was honored as the Legislator of the Year by the National Council for Behavioral Health and received the Allies in Action Award from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. 

Kelly is a homegrown conservative who is running for Governor because she is concerned that we are one election away from becoming Massachusetts — from becoming something we are not. Kelly was born here, raised here, she and Joe have raised their children here and they will never leave New Hampshire because they love and appreciate how different and special our state and its people are. 

Kelly will fight to ensure that New Hampshire remains the best place to raise a family.  She will fight to protect the New Hampshire Advantage of no income or sales taxes which sets us apart from our neighbors. She will fight and strengthen our live free or die values which make New Hampshire a beacon for freedom in New England and throughout the country.

As Governor, Kelly will make sure New Hampshire remains safe, prosperous and free.