New Hampshire will not gain any newly recognized political parties after two statewide candidates, one running as a Libertarian and the other under the Constitution designation, fell short of the minimum vote threshold required for recognition.
According to results coming out Tuesday’s general election, Libertarian Stephen Villee, who ran for governor, and Constitution Party candidate Ed Laplante, who sought the state’s U.S. Senate seat, both failed to reach the minimum 4 percent required for recognition under state law.
Under New Hampshire law, a political organization can qualify as a recognized party by receiving at least 4 percent of the vote in either statewide race. Recognition would allow the organization to participate in the state primary and nominate candidates for future elections without requiring them to collect thousands of signatures to appear on the general election ballot. Currently, New Hampshire recognizes only the Democratic and Republican parties.
Villee originally sought the support of the Libertarian Party of New Hampshire, then the Libertarian National Committee’s state affiliate, at its March convention for a second time earlier this year. He was originally the party’s endorsed candidate during the 2024 election cycle. However, delegates instead passed him over, opting to support None of the Above.
He was ultimately able to qualify for the ballot thanks to the support of independent Libertarian activists who organized a petitioning effort on his behalf. Several of those activists later helped establish the Granite State Libertarian Party, which the national party recognized as its new affiliate in September after disaffiliating the previous organization. Villee said one of his major campaign goals this year was to reach the 4 percent needed to establish a new recognized Libertarian Party.
Unofficial election results from the Associated Press early Wednesday afternoon show that, with approximately 92 percent of the vote counted, Villee received 9,836 votes, or 1.7 percent, against incumbent Republican Governor Kelly Ayotte and Democratic nominee Cinde Warmington.
Meanwhile, Laplante received 11,129 votes, or 1.9 percent, in his U.S. Senate bid against Democrat Chris Pappas and Republican John Sununu. Laplante, who chairs the Constitution Party of New Hampshire, similarly qualified for the ballot after his own supporters collected the required 3,000 valid signatures.
Laplante’s campaign also received support from former independent Senate candidate Aaron Day, who abandoned his own ballot access effort earlier this year. Day said he withdrew after receiving promises of action on several political demands, which he later claimed were not fulfilled.
Day and his wife then established StarkFreedom, an organization that announced plans to spend up to $2.5 million supporting third party candidates in several U.S. Senate races, beginning with Laplante. Day said the effort was intended to punish Republicans over what he considered broken political promises.
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