“I Think There is Distrust Among Women.”: New York Times Report Highlights Warning Signs for Kelly Ayotte

“I Think There is Distrust Among Women.”: New York Times Report Highlights Warning Signs for Kelly Ayotte​

A New York Times dispatch from New Hampshire today outlines the stakes of New Hampshire’s governor’s race, and how Kelly Ayotte’s attempts to rewrite her record on abortion and Trump are only giving Granite Staters “qualms” about her candidacy. As the Times reports, “[Ayotte] has said the law won’t change, but there is no guarantee,’ said Marie Mulroy, 77, an independent voter in Manchester…‘I think there is distrust among women.’”

Additionally, “Ms. Mulroy pointed to another reason that independent women like her might have qualms about Ms. Ayotte: She is supporting former President Donald J. Trump in the presidential race, albeit quietly, eight years after she announced that she could not countenance doing so.

Read more from the New York Times on why “Distrust of Kelly Ayotte, the Republican candidate” is keeping New Hampshire’s governor’s race neck-and-neck:

• Ms. Ayotte voted as a senator to defund Planned Parenthood and helped guide Neil Gorsuch, the conservative Supreme Court justice, through his confirmation process in 2017. She has also expressed support for the court’s decision in 2022 to eliminate the constitutional right to abortion — in which Justice Gorsuch sided with the majority — and turn the issue over to the states.
• In October 2016, when she was seeking re-election to the Senate, Ms. Ayotte pledged to write in Mike Pence, Mr. Trump’s running mate at the time, for president after the leak of the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape that captured Mr. Trump boasting about grabbing women’s genitals.
• “I’m a mom and an American first, and I cannot and will not support a candidate for president who brags about degrading and assaulting women,” Ms. Ayotte said at the time. A month later, she lost her Senate re-election bid by 1,000 votes to Maggie Hassan, a Democrat who has held the seat since.
• “Trump isn’t spending money in New Hampshire,” Mr. Cullen said, adding that ‘there’s no big turnout effort for Republicans and there’s no evidence that there are a lot of ticket splitters’ who would back both Ms. Harris and Ms. Ayotte.
• Ms. Craig has also tapped a powerful roster of New England women for campaign support. In a cramped field office in Manchester on Tuesday, she rallied her campaign workers with help from both New Hampshire senators, Ms. Hassan and Jeanne Shaheen; Gov. Maura Healey of Massachusetts; and Gina Raimondo, the former Rhode Island governor who now serves as U.S. secretary of commerce.
• Elsewhere in the city, other residents said they backed Ms. Craig because she had built relationships that went beyond politics. “She’s one of the few mayors who wanted to get to know our community,” said Sandra Almonte, a business owner who hosted a campaign event with Latino voters at her restaurant on Tuesday.

###