Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig is taking a big step toward running for New Hampshire governor next year.

On Monday, the three-term Democratic mayor of New Hampshire’s largest city announced the formation of a gubernatorial exploratory committee, Craig’s first formal step toward launching a 2024 campaign for the corner office.

Craig touted in a statement that during her tenure steering Manchester “we’ve added thousands of new jobs, hundreds of affordable housing units, decreased school class sizes, and reduced violent crime by 38 percent.”

“As I’ve had discussions with local leaders across New Hampshire, it is increasingly clear that the same challenges we’re working to tackle in Manchester are seen in communities across the state,” Craig emphasized. “As a Mayor, I’ve collaborated with mayors and town and city officials to address these challenges – and we’ve made real progress.”

But she argued that “there is a lack of support for cities and towns at the state level and I know we can do better. That’s why I’m launching an exploratory committee for governor.”

Craig, who made history as the first woman elected to lead Manchester, announced in March that she wouldn’t seek a fourth two-year term in November, and sources close to the mayor told the Monitor that she was seriously looking at a potential run for governor in 2024.

The mayor also unveiled a large list of leading political leaders heading up her gubernatorial exploratory committee, led by former four-term Gov. John Lynch and former first lady Susan Lynch.

“Joyce’s leadership in Manchester and across the state make her the most well-prepared candidate to serve as our next governor, and her record as a winner in tough elections proves she can put together a winning campaign,” the former governor said in a statement.

Among the others on the list of supporters are Stonyfield Organic co-founder Gary Hirshberg, who seriously mulled a 2022 Democratic run for governor, and two past party nominees for governor – 2018 nominee and former state Sen. Molly Kelly and 2016 nominee and former executive councilor Colin Van Ostern.

Craig, who served on the Manchester School Board and later the city’s Board of Aldermen, narrowly lost the 2015 nonpartisan mayoral election to then-longtime GOP Mayor Ted Gatsas. But she defeated Gatsas in a 2017 rematch and was comfortably re-elected in 2019 and 2021. She’s long been viewed by political pundits as a potential Democratic gubernatorial contender.

Republican Gov. Chris Sununu last month sparked more speculation that he won’t seek what would be a historic fifth two-year gubernatorial term in 2024.

“I’m not saying I’m not running again, but you know... I’ve gotta get a real job,” Sununu joked at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics as he addressed the New England Council, a regional business association representing both public and private organizations.

Sununu, who’s currently considering a run for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, has said he hopes to make a decision on his political future this summer after the end of the current New Hampshire legislative session and the signing of the state’s next biennial budget.

It’s likely Craig would have company in the race for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination.

Former Democratic state Sen. Dr. Tom Sherman, who had been considering a second straight run for New Hampshire governor, announced Monday, he was stepping aside.

“I feel strongly that it’s time for me to take a break,” Sherman, a gastroenterologist from Rye, said in a video message. 

Also considering a run for governor is Democrat Cinde Warmington, who’s currently serving her second two-year term on New Hampshire’s five-member Executive Council representing District 2, which includes Concord.

Former state Senate president Chuck Morse, state Education commissioner Frank Edelblut, and former U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte, who also served as state attorney general, are seriously mulling Republican gubernatorial runs if Sununu doesn’t seek re-election.

]]>