Bissex, Hsu, Leishman and Wheeler come out on top in Democratic legislative primaries
Published: 09-11-2024 1:59 PM
Modified: 09-13-2024 11:05 AM |
In two crowded Democratic primary races for state representative, four candidates pulled away with their party’s nominations to serve in Concord -- newcomers Hannah Bissex and Tom Hsu, and incumbents Jonah Wheeler and Peter Leishman.
Bissex and Hsu won in Cheshire County’s 18th District, which was created during redistricting in 2022 and includes Jaffrey, Dublin and Rindge. They received 42.7% and 31.8% of the vote, respectively. The third candidate was Jed Brummer, a former local government official in Rindge.
Hsu said he, Bissex and Brummer are all friends and have worked together throughout the primary. Their teams and other Democrats in the area all planned to get together on Wednesday to strategize for November.
“We have a very, very, very strong chance to take both seats. People are really fed up with finger-pointing and fighting and not having solutions,” Hsu said, emphasizing their positive primary campaigns. “We want to help. We’re not going to attack each other.”
Hsu chairs the Jaffrey Conservation Commission and advises the Planning Board in that role, built and ran three education companies and has published a dozen middle- and high-school science textbooks. Bissex is a former math teacher, a small-scale farmer and runs Farm to Fork, an agricultural and entrepreneurial education program for the Cornucopia Project, a Peterborough-based nonprofit. In 2022, she ran unsuccessfully against longtime Republican state Rep. John Hunt.
Bissex said there are strong candidates on both sides of the political aisle. As they plan to get out and start knocking on doors ahead of Nov. 5, she said this election will be won one door at a time.
“This work in the election is really just the training grounds for being an effective legislator,” Bissex said. “It’s about listening to people about what’s on their minds so that we can most effectively aim our work once we get to the State House.”
Brummer is a former member of Rindge’s Select Board and Planning Board, and his family owned and operated the Woodbound Inn for decades. He built his career in the hospitality industry, and he used to be president of the Rotary Club of Jaffrey-Rindge.
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They’ll face two Republicans in a two-seat district – Rita Mattson and the incumbent, Jim Qualey. Matt Santonastaso is not running for reelection, and there was no Republican primary.
Wheeler and Leishman received 37.8% and 36.3% of the vote, respectively, to beat former state Rep. Ivy Vann.
Vann had hoped to regain her former seat, where she served from 2014 to 2022. She’s also a town planning consultant, which she says is her way of helping towns create more affordable and available housing.
Leishman shared a “big thank you” to his and Wheeler’s supporters in Peterborough and Sharon, saying he’s grateful to be returning to the State House. If he wins in November, this will be Leishman’s 13th term.
They’ll face Republican Kimberly Thomas in a two-seat district.
Wheeler, elected in 2022, said he’s excited to potentially head back to Concord for his second term to focus on issues like education funding and criminal justice reform.
“We have to have a state government that works for all of us, and that’s that vision that won in this election,” Wheeler said. “People are ready for it, I think it’s not just me. I think it’s just people are ready for a vision of the future. They’re ready to start feeling faith in what we can do as a state.”
Charlotte Matherly is the State Ho reporter for the Concord Monitor and Monadnock Ledger-Transcript in partnership with Report for America. Follow her on X at @charmatherly, or send her an email at cmatherly@cmonitor.com.