NH state representative races are not for sale…yet

New Hampshire is famous for our “Citizen Legislature,” where representatives are paid just $100 per year plus mileage for their service. Ideally this deters candidates from running for personal gain. However, state races are gaining more attention from interest groups, and some watchdogs are sounding the alarm over the influence of money in campaigns. Here at Citizens Count, we are dedicated to providing unbiased information about New Hampshire issues and candidates, so we’ve combed through state campaign finance reports to answer the question: can you “buy” a state representative race in New Hampshire? Our analysis shows that while there is a possibility of outside influence, most state representative races in 2024 didn’t flip based on spending.

Running for state representative is still relatively low cost

Candidates for state representative must report their campaign finances to the Secretary of State if they raise or spend over $1,000 during an election cycle. Citizens Count was unable to find campaign finance reports for about half of all state representative candidates in 2024, so we assume that those candidates all ran campaigns under $1,000. (It’s possible that some state representative candidates are not following state campaign finance laws, but that’s a different investigation to pursue.) 

The state representative candidates who did report fundraising raised an average of $5,001 and spent an average of $4,112 on everything from yard signs, to rack cards, to websites in 2024.

As a point of comparison, state representative candidates spent an average of $7,489 in Maine, $33,721 in Massachusetts, and $3,497 in Vermont in the 2024 election.

Jenny Ramsey, a Democrat from Meriden, had the most expensive 2024 campaign for state representative in New Hampshire, reporting $55,300 in expenditures. Brian Labrie, a Republican from Bedford, followed with $38,877 in 2024 campaign expenditures.

Democrats, Republicans have different donor profiles

Democratic state representative candidates raised more money from small donations than Republican candidates in New Hampshire in 2024.

The average Democratic candidate for state representative reported 31 individual donors, with an average donation of $182.

The average Republican candidate for state representative reported 13 individual donors, with an average donation of $350. 

This mirrors national trends; Democrats tend to raise more money from small donors, while Republicans tend to get larger donations.

Outside spending overshadows individual campaigns

While many New Hampshire candidates still run for office on a shoestring budget, PACs and other outside organizations are throwing big bucks at New Hampshire representative races.

Independent groups spent roughly $2.2 million on state representative candidates in 2024, far beyond the $1.5 million reported by candidates themselves. The vast majority of this spending – over 80% – came from just four groups: Americans for Prosperity-New Hampshire (roughly $840,000), New Hampshire Climate Campaign (roughly $370,000), Campaign for a Family Friendly Economy (roughly $510,000), and Make Liberty Win (roughly $300,000).

This spending was also concentrated in fewer districts. About one-quarter of New Hampshire representative candidates benefitted from positive outside spending, and about one-quarter were the target of attack ads. When looking just at those districts with outside spending, independent groups spent an average of $8,310 supporting individual state representative candidates and $2,074 attacking individual state representative candidates. That dollar amount was frequently more than individual candidates spent on their own campaigns.

Victory couldn’t be bought in the 2024 NH House races

Based just on campaign finance reports, it looks like Democrats should have won the New Hampshire House of Representatives in 2024. They reported over 6,000 individual donors; Republican candidates had less than 2,000. Democratic candidates spent almost $850,000 in the state representative races; Republican candidates spent less than $550,000.

Democrats also exceeded Republicans when it came to independent attack ads. Outside groups spent roughly $380,000 on ads attacking Republicans but only $90,000 on ads attacking Democrats in the 2024 elections for state representative.

Outside spending was closer on positive ads. Outside groups spent roughly $830,000 in support of Democratic state representative candidates and $860,000 in support of Republican state representative candidates in 2024.

In the end, spending by candidates and independent groups did not seem to sway most voters in state representative races. Republicans picked up 21 seats in the New Hampshire House of Representatives in 2024. When you include independent expenditures, they outspent Democrats in only five of those districts (Belknap-2, Coos-7, Cheshire-9, Hillsborough-10, and Hillsborough-18).

A note on primaries

This analysis focused on general election results; it’s possible that spending plays a larger role in the primaries for state representative.

Citizens Count found a few districts where a large infusion of outside spending may have influenced primary results. For example, Republican incumbent Rep. David Bickford was ousted from his seat in Middleton and New Durham by newcomer Susan DeRoy* after the Make Liberty Win PAC spent over $17,000 on advertisements in that primary. In Raymond, Republican incumbents Tim Cahill and Kevin Pratt both lost the primary after Make Liberty Win and Americans for Prosperity-New Hampshire spent over $33,000 on advertisements.

There are other examples where large spending seemed to have no impact, however. In Salem, Republican Brandon Stevens lost the primary even though Make Liberty Win PAC and Americans for Prosperity-New Hampshire spent over $19,000 to support his campaign. Cale Houston of Hampstead similarly lost his primary despite over $10,000 in ad spending by Americans for Prosperity-New Hampshire.

If you’re wondering why none of these examples include Democratic primaries, it’s because there were far fewer Democratic than Republican primaries in New Hampshire in 2024. Citizens Count did not find a district with huge spending heading into a Democratic primary.

Ultimately, big spenders have the potential to influence both primaries and general elections for the New Hampshire House of Representatives. However, for most state representative races, money is apparently not the deciding factor.

Methodology

The New Hampshire data in this report came from the New Hampshire Secretary of State’s Online Campaign Finance System as of March 31, 2025. Citizens Count staff transcribed the total receipts, total expenditures, and number of contributors from handwritten campaign finance reports into spreadsheet format.

One organization making independent expenditures, 603 Forward, grouped spending on multiple candidates. For the purposes of this analysis, we equally divided that total independent expenditure amount between each of the candidates listed on the 603 Forward reports.

*A note from Citizens Count: Susan DeRoy formerly served as Executive Director of Citizens Count but left the organization in 2019.