The Steve Marchand Podcast

New Hampshire's State Senate District 12 may be my favorite downballot district in the entire state. (This is quite a statement, given that there are 203 House districts and 24 Senate districts in a state of 1.4 million people.) Located near the Massachusetts border, it's about an R+1 district that includes the "blue" suburban wards of Nashua; the very "purple" suburbs...

In the battle for New Hampshire's state senate, District 18 is oddly both one of the most competitive districts...and perhaps the most overlooked of 2026. It includes most of the south and southeastern wards of Manchester, plus the Republican-but-trending-purple town of Litchfield. After several terms in office, Senate Minority Leader Donna Soucy lost in 2024 to Republican Victoria Sullivan, a...

On Tuesday, news broke that New Hampshire State Supreme Court Chief Justice Gordon MacDonald was resigning, effective immediately. The real surprise, though, given that MacDonald was on an increasingly mysterious medical leave of absence, was the reason for his resignation: Three specific violations of the state's Code of Judicial Conduct involving improper personnel decisions surrounding Dian...

In an unexpected series of events earlier this summer, Governor Kelly Ayotte ignored rare bipartisan agreement on a major issue - updating New Hampshire's 10-year Transportation Improvement Plan - vetoing a bill that would have funded major projects on I-93, going right through two of the three biggest cities in the state (Manchester and Concord). She said she vetoed it because the plan includ...

Melanie Levesque has been deeply involved in NH electoral politics for 20 years, starting with her 2006 flip of a State House seat in Brookline, through her 2018 victory in the State Senate, to her current run for the Executive Council against longtime incumbent David Wheeler. It's a rematch of 2024 - a much tougher year for downballot Democrats than 2026 is expected to be - when Wheeler preva...

Cinde Warmington is the presumptive Democratic nominee for New Hampshire Governor in 2026 - and she's got a better chance of pulling off the victory than you probably think. First-term incumbent GOP Governor Kelly Ayotte has kept a generally low-key demeanor while a much harder-charging, Free State Project-driven GOP House majority has been pushing the envelope in such areas as education vouch...

New Hampshire's status as "First In the Nation" for selecting presidential nominees - at least in the Democratic side - is under attack like never before. In late July, a key group within the Democratic National Committee (DNC) recommended which six states should begin the presidential primary process in early 2028. New Hampshire was third on that proposed calendar (February 8th, to...

Albert "Buzz" Scherr has a remarkably deep and well-rounded career in the topic: A nationally recognized authority on forensic DNA evidence, he spent more than 12 years as a public defender, 20+ years as a trial and appellate lawyer, and has handled more than 40 homicide cases. He’s also a member of the UNH School of Law faculty, he’s taught everything from criminal procedure, to expert...

A lot has happened in the last few weeks in the two Democratic and GOP primaries in NH's CD-1 that could be greatly simplifying those races. But the emerging story in New Hampshire could be the Democratic primary for...U.S. Senate. Democratic Socialist candidates have been making news in several high-profile congressional primaries (in places like Colorado and New York), and recently polling from...

Rebecca Harned is the Democratic nominee in New Hampshire's State Senate District 7, one of the most competitive and important downballot races in the state in 2026. The Senate is currently controlled by the GOP 16-8, though a number of those 16 GOP-held seats are considered competitive in what appears to be a Democratic-leaning year this fall. Sen. Dan Innis, a two-term Republican incumbent,...

Lisa Kennedy Sheldon is running for elected office for the first time, but she's got the campaign slogan down: "Because you can care about people *and* the bottom line". It's a reflection of a distinguished - and diverse - career in nursing, as an executive, and as an educator. Sheldon is running in the New Hampshire Executive Council's 3rd District, which includes most of th...

This episode is a recording of a live event from June 18th with NH State Senate District 16 candidate Dian McCarthy. It's the first episode of a 2026 series I'm calling "Pitch Deck". Over the next 4+ months, I want to dive in on a number of the most intriguing, interesting, and important downballot races in New Hampshire. The first 15 minutes are a quick run through the analytics...

Scott Shepard is a candidate for State Representative in NH in Strafford 4 - one of the most competitive, "purple", and politically interesting districts in the state...but that's *not* why I wanted to sit down with him. Scott has a Substack, NH Insights, that is approaching the biggest public policy problems facing New Hampshire with a decidedly unique tone. Unlike most politicians,...

NH Democratic Party Chairman Raymond Buckley is the longest serving state party chair in America, going back to 2007. He has truly seen it all, being involved in state politics for over 50 years (he started well before he could get a driver's license) - from growing up with the state being a safe GOP presidential win through the 1970s and 80s, through a stretch where Democrats won 9 out of 10...

Memorial Day 2026 has come and gone - which means the unofficial next phase of New Hampshire's congressional primaries has begun. Carleigh Beriont is a Hampton Selectwoman, an educator, and a former labor organizer. She's vying to be the primary progressive choice of the six main candidates in this Democratic primary for NH-1. The seat is open, thanks to four-term incumbent Chris Pappas's (D-Manch...

Maura Sullivan is a leading contender for an open congressional seat - New Hampshire's 1st CD - considered one of the most competitive in America. As a first-time candidate for public office in 2018 - running in this same NH-1 the last time it was an open seat - Sullivan earned a strong 2nd place finish in an 11-way primary with over 30% of the vote. In the meantime, she's been deeply invo...

Today's episode is based on a live show recorded on Tuesday, April 28th, which gave my paid Substack subscribers a sneak preview ahead of the full "2026 NH State Senate Projection Show, V1.0". The full show, with graphics, charts, and full data, is available at my YouTube channel . This is a trimmed down, audio-friendly version of the full show, which gets into the six senate distric...

In the Democratic primary for NH's 1st congressional district - a purple seat that is open because incumbent Democrat Chris Pappas is pursuing NH's U.S. Senate seat - Stefany Shaheen has been the frontrunner since entering the race in May of last year. That's the advantage of being the daughter of the historic political figure Pappas is hoping to succeed - Senator Jeanne Shaheen, the f...

Following one of the first forums involving most of the sprawling field for the open, competitive Democratic primary in New Hampshire's 1st congressional district, Steve Marchand brought in each of the five candidates for live interviews. They talked about how they thought the event went, what they are hearing on the campaign trail, answered follow-up questions from Steve (who moderated the ev...

On Monday, Saint Anselm College released a new poll asking a wide range of questions about New Hampshire's 2026 elections and political landscape. The headline? The NH electorate is deeply dissatisfied with the direction of the country, and is poised to deliver a strong election night for federal - and perhaps state-level - Democratic candidates. The same electorate also said Governor Ayotte w...

Jon Kiper joined me recently on Substack Live for the first time since former Executive Councilor Cinde Warmington announced she would be running in the Democratic gubernatorial primary. With Portsmouth Mayor Deaglan McEachern (somewhat surprisingly) announcing he would not be seeking the nomination, it appears the field is set, with the 2nd- and 3rd-place finishers in the 2024 Democratic gubernat...

As we approach the NH legislature's annual crossover of Senate and House bills, Democratic House Leader Alexis Simpson and Deputy Leader Laura Telerski stopped by review the 2026 session. They visit on the heels of quite a week: About 180 bills went through the NH House last week alone! Despite the GOP having a sizable ~40-seat advantage in the House, there have been Democratic wins in 2026 -...

Rep. David Paige (D-Conway) is a sharp guy. In only his second term in the NH House, he's arguably the most sophisticated member in the 400-member body on the #1 issue facing New Hampshire these days: Housing (and the lack thereof). In this episode, we went through the reasons why the NH housing market is so tight, and so expensive. It's supply problems, including challenges legislators ca...

Former Executive Councilor (and 2020 gubernatorial candidate) Andru Volinsky released his "3-3 Tax Savings Plan" Tuesday morning at the NH State House, and it definitely got the New Hampshire political community talking. The plan would rely on a 3% income tax (w/significant deductions) and a $3 per $1,000 statewide property tax (with a $250K homestead exemption) to generate significant r...

What would you do if a bill going through your state legislature had the potential to be the most harmful piece of public policy in your state in a generation? If you're my two guests today, you'd build a statewide coalition to do something about it in a matter of weeks. My guests today are a pair of local leaders who are impressively organizing a statewide coalition opposed to HB751 - a b...