New Hampshire will move up primary, going where Massachusetts won’t

Whatever fraction of Massachusetts voters ultimately breaks from their moving days, back-to-school prep or summer vacations to head to the polls in-person on Sept. 1, they’ll be the only primary voters in the country doing so that Tuesday. 

Massachusetts is one of just four states holding this year’s primary in September, while most pick party nominees months earlier. The group will dwindle further in 2028, when a law kicks in moving New Hampshire’s state primary to June.

Republican and Democrat sponsors of the New Hampshire legislation knocked the September date — which means shorter general election campaigns — as an “incumbent protection plan.” A similar effort to reschedule the Massachusetts primary has never picked up much steam on Beacon Hill. 

A bill to move the Massachusetts primary to June sank unceremoniously last year in an Election Laws Committee study order. The committee advanced another bill that coupled a June primary date with other election reforms, only for it to wither in Senate Ways and Means. 

The Massachusetts Senate twice in recent years rejected June primary proposals from Needham Democrat Sen. Becca Rausch, who has argued that the shift would give voters time to learn more about candidates, give town clerks more time to plan, and remove September scheduling conflicts involving the interplay of federal election laws, military voting and Jewish holidays.

So what’s different in New Hampshire? 

For one thing, bill supporters there explicitly argued the change would have bigger impacts in top-of-the-ticket statewide and federal races — and less so for the sitting lawmakers who may have a more favorable view of incumbent protection plans. 

New Hampshire Rep. Kris Schultz, a Democrat, said at a committee hearing that “scrappy” state reps could adapt to a new timeline and should communicate with their constituents throughout the year anyway. Republican Rep. Ross Berry said they "can walk and chew gum at the same time," balancing an earlier primary campaign season with their ongoing legislative session. 

Berry also pointed to a fresh example— the bitter 2024 Democratic gubernatorial primary between candidates Joyce Craig and Cinde Warmington. Warmington would go on to lose 54-44 to Kelly Ayotte, a Republican who ultimately signed the primary date bill into law. 

"Now-Gov. Ayotte kind of ran away with her primary,” he said. “She was able to pivot off and go straight to the general election, while the Democrats were marred up, chasing each other to the left, and you saw how that worked out.” 

Meanwhile in Massachusetts, some Republican candidates don’t seem worried about when general election season officially starts. 

GOP Senate nominee John Deaton challenged Democrats Sen. Ed Markey and Rep. Seth Moulton, still locked in their own primary fight, both to a debate, and squared off on-stage against Moulton in June. And governor candidate Mike Minogue, while opting not to debate primary foe Brian Shortsleeve, challenged Gov. Maura Healey to a pair of pre-Labor Day showdowns. 

Call it the DIY approach to reworking the election calendar. 

What’s your dream date for a primary election? And what’s your plan for voting in this one — day-of, early, by mail, or not at all? Let me know at [email protected].

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