Jerry Knirk: A fascinating six years

I spent the past six years representing the towns of Madison, Tamworth, Albany and Freedom in the New Hampshire House of Representatives. I served those years on the Health Human Services and Elderly Affairs committees. Serving in the Legislature, particularly on that committee, was challenging during the last few years with the COVID pandemic.

I was disappointed to lose my race this year in the new district, but it was exactly what I expected given that the new district leans heavily Republican. The NH Partisan Voter Index for the district is R+7, indicating that voters in the district have historically voted for Republican candidates by 7 percentage points more than the rest of the state votes for Republicans. Political analysts generally consider this an insurmountable obstacle, even for a moderate Democrat like me. I was the top vote-getter in Freedom, Madison and Tamworth, three towns which I had previously represented. But when the new, large, heavily Republican towns of Moultonborough and Wakefield were factored in, I lost the election as the candidate finishing in third place in a two-seat district.