Whether Aaron Day appears on New Hampshire’s U.S. Senate ballot as an independent candidate now depends on a federal lawsuit after the state Ballot Law Commission upheld an earlier decision preventing him from filing his declaration of intent.
New Hampshire Public Radio reported June 29 that the commission met and voted 4-1 to uphold Secretary of State David Scanlan’s decision to reject Day’s filing. The issue concerns whether Day was properly registered to vote in Nashua, where he now lives, before the state’s filing period closed.
Day had previously lived and voted in Bedford, another New Hampshire community, before moving to Nashua. He told NHPR that Scanlan’s office rejected his initial June 10 filing after determining that he was not registered to vote in Nashua’s 3rd Ward. Day then registered in Nashua and refiled, but the state rejected his filing once more, saying he would not become a registered voter until local checklist supervisors had the chance to meet and approve his registration.
Day had already filed his lawsuit against Scanlan in federal court before the Ballot Law Commission heard his appeal, saying after the vote that he did not have “huge expectations that this was going to be a win.” His lawsuit argues that New Hampshire’s voter registration requirement is unconstitutional as applied to candidates for U.S. Senate because the qualifications for that office are explicitly set by the U.S. Constitution. State officials have argued that Day failed to satisfy ballot access requirements.
Despite running as an independent this cycle, Day’s resume shows he has long been active in New Hampshire libertarian politics, including through the Free State Project and the Republican Liberty Caucus of New Hampshire, both of which he previously chaired. He also previously chaired Stark360, a pro-liberty political action committee active in New Hampshire politics that Day claims has helped elect more than 200 candidates across three election cycles.
Day himself is also no stranger to electoral politics. He first ran for U.S. Senate during the 2016 election cycle, also as an independent candidate, where he received 17,742 votes, or 2.4 percent. In that race, Democrat Maggie Hassan defeated Republican incumbent Kelly Ayotte by just over 1,000 votes, with Day later claiming credit for Ayotte’s defeat. Notably, the Libertarian Party of New Hampshire nominated Brian Chabot that year, and Chabot also received more votes than Hassan’s margin of victory.
Day later sought the Libertarian Party of New Hampshire nomination for governor in 2018, losing to Jilletta Jarvis in the party’s primary. As part of his 2026 Senate campaign, Day again sought support from the state Libertarian Party, though delegates declined to make statewide endorsements and instead backed “None of the Above” over Day. At the same time, the party also declined to back former Libertarian nominee Stephen Villee, who was seeking support for another gubernatorial bid.
Day has said his current campaign is motivated in part by opposition to federal cryptocurrency policy under the Trump administration. In February, shortly before he officially entered the race, he told the Washington Examiner that it would take a “180-degree reversal” on Trump’s cryptocurrency policy to stop him from running. He said that he was prepared to again influence the election at the expense of the Republican nominee and had already taken steps to court some local libertarian activists.
Ballot Access News has identified the federal case as Day v. New Hampshire Secretary of State, 1:26-cv-499. As of this article’s original publication, no further information or updates have been shared about the case.
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