As Rep. Annie Kuster of New Hampshire winds up her tenure within the Home of Representatives this week. After a dozen years of representing New Hampshire in Congress, she has a message for a few of her older colleagues.
“Some of my colleagues in the House of Representatives who have been in Congress for decades, and they get very comfortable in districts that are deep, deep blue. They haven’t had a challenging election in a long time,” Kuster instructed Fox Information Digital.
The 68-year-old Kuster, who gained election and re-election six instances in swing state New Hampshire’s aggressive Second Congressional District, determined towards operating once more for an additional time period in 2024, partly as a result of she felt it was time for a brand new technology of Home Democrat leaders to take over and that she needed to set an instance.
“I did want to lead by example. I felt that 12 years was a good length of time to put my shoulder to the wheel and work hard for working families and veterans and farmers and save the planet and protect women’s rights. These were all important to me. But I think the generational change that is going on in the House Democratic Caucus is really important,” she emphasised.
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Democrat Rep. Annie Kuster of New Hampshire marches in an Independence Day parade on July 4, 2022, in Amherst, N.H. (Fox Information – Paul Steinhauser)
Kuster pointed to the generational shift amongst Home Democrats with the overthrow of senior committee leaders within the weeks since November’s election, when the celebration misplaced management of the White Home and Senate majority and narrowly did not regain management of the Home.
Pointing to a few of her Home Democrat colleagues of their 70s or 80s, Kuster stated “they served their country well, but I don’t think there’s any shame in stepping down and saying there are other people that can do this job.”
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However Kuster highlighted that she was not referring to Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, who takes over in January as the highest Democrat on the highly effective Senate International Relations Committee. The previous governor, who turns 78 subsequent month, is contemplating operating for re-election for a fourth six-year time period within the Senate when she’s up in 2026.
“Let me just clarify. I’m not talking about Sen. Shaheen. I hope she will run for another term,” Kuster stated. “I think she’s at the top of her game and doing an extraordinary job.”
Rep. Annie Kuster, D-N.H. (Fox Information – Paul Steinhauser)
Kuster says one more reason she determined towards searching for re-election was because of her time-consuming efforts as chair of the New Democrat Coalition.
“It’s sort of the center left, pragmatic, get the job done, work across the aisle; I call it the can-do caucus,” she stated.
Kuster famous that the New Democrat Coalition has “both a policy arm and a political arm, and so one of the reasons that I was stepping down is that I was doing a great deal of travel all across the country recruiting candidates to run for the House, and then raising resources and supporting their campaigns with strategy and consultants and communications, and just spending a lot of time on it, myself, welcoming them and helping them.”
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Kuster highlighted that whereas her celebration suffered main setbacks within the 2024 elections, “[A]mong the New Democrat candidates, we protected 20 out of 22 current members who were challenged in tough races. We call them the front line, and we will be welcoming 25 new members of the New Democrat coalition. It’s going to be up to 110 members.”
“We flipped nine seats from what we call red to blue, and most of those were won by [President-elect Donald] Trump, but our candidates outperformed the top of the ticket,” she stated.
Rep. Annie Kuster, D-N.H. (Invoice Clark/CQ-Roll Name by way of Getty Photos)
Kuster stated “the message that we had was successful” and that the message centered on “lowering costs, about bringing people together to get the job done. We focused in on safety and security, not just immigration and the border, but crime in the community and non-violence in the schools.”
“We also talked about democracy, and we also talked about women’s reproductive health, but we really leaned in on costs and the economy and where the voters have the greatest concern. And so, it’s a message that I think will resonate,” she added.
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Kuster stated she’s going to spend the subsequent two years serving to fellow Democrats as they attain for the Home majority in 2026.
“My north star is for the Democrats to win back the House,” she stated.
Kuster added that she needs to assist “create the next generation of Democratic leaders” who advocate for a “center-left, pragmatic approach, working across the aisle getting the job done. I know from this cycle that that was very, very successful, and that’s where we won the seats.”
