EXCLUSIVE: CONCORD, N.H. — Kelly Ayotte turns into the nation’s newest governor on Thursday when she’s inaugurated on the New Hampshire State Home.
The previous U.S. senator, who beforehand served as a state lawyer common, takes workplace in the important thing New England swing state every week and a half earlier than President-elect Trump is inaugurated.
And Ayotte, who succeeds fellow Republican Gov. Chris Sununu in steering the Granite State, says she appears to be like ahead to working with the Trump administration.
“I will work with the administration on behalf of New Hampshire and advocate for the Granite State on necessary priorities right here: protecting the state protected, ensuring that on the subject of federal assets that we’re advocating for New Hampshire, so I sit up for working with the administration,” Ayotte stated in a nationwide unique interview with Fox Information Digital forward of her inauguration.
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Former Sen. Kelly Ayotte, the Republican gubernatorial nominee in New Hampshire, celebrates her election victory for governor on Nov. 5, 2024. (Kelly Ayotte marketing campaign)
Throughout final yr’s gubernatorial marketing campaign, which culminated with Ayotte defeating Democrat gubernatorial nominee and former Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig by practically 10 factors in November’s election, the issue of illegal immigration and border safety was usually within the highlight in a state that shares a border with Canada and has lengthy handled an acute fentanyl disaster.
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Ayotte, who pledged on the marketing campaign path to stop New Hampshire from turning into a sanctuary state for unlawful migrants, may have what Sununu did not benefit from the previous 4 years: a Republican within the White Home.
“President Trump goes to implement the legal guidelines, and that is necessary to me. And now we have a northern border.”
Republican Gov.-elect Kelly Ayotte, a former U.S. senator, is interviewed by Fox Information Digital on Jan. 7, 2024, on the State Home in Harmony, N.H. (Fox Information – Paul Steinhauser)
Noting her tenure as a state lawyer common, Ayotte stated, “I consider it is necessary that criminals are held accountable. And as we have a look at New Hampshire, we’re not going to permit New Hampshire to turn out to be a sanctuary state. And so it is necessary that we implement our legal guidelines. We welcome authorized immigration, however those that come right here illegally and particularly those that commit crimes should be held accountable.”
Ayotte was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2010 and was a rising star within the GOP and thought to be a frontrunner on nationwide safety and overseas coverage.
However Ayotte misplaced re-election in 2016 by a razor-thin margin of simply over 1,000 votes by the hands of then-Democrat Gov. Maggie Hassan.
Gov.-elect Kelly Ayotte, left, and Gov. Chris Sununu meet within the New Hampshire governor’s workplace on the State Home in Harmony, N.H., on Nov. 7, 2024. (Workplace of New Hampshire governor)
Now, as she takes over working the Granite State, she stated that “my No. 1 precedence is being a governor for everybody in New Hampshire, for all of the individuals, and being accessible to the individuals of New Hampshire.”
“Ensuring that we proceed to develop our financial system, our prosperity, our freedom right here in New Hampshire, having a accountable price range the place we dwell inside our means however serve the individuals of New Hampshire successfully, these might be my priorities on day one,” she added.
Ayotte, who made historical past practically twenty years in the past because the state’s first feminine lawyer common, made historical past once more in November as the primary Republican woman to win election as New Hampshire governor.
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“We’ve got so many robust girls which have served on this state, an important historical past,” Ayotte stated. “There are such a lot of examples of ladies who’ve led and nice males who’ve led, too.”
She stated her “hope is that each younger woman on the market understands that no matter place she strives to achieve, it is accessible to her, and that we aren’t even having these discussions about whether or not a girl’s elected or a person’s elected as a result of it is simply equal for everybody to know that these alternatives are there, and I feel that is what’s taking place in New Hampshire.”
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