I found myself putting less weight on the most impressive résumé or the clearest ideological label and more on judgment, independence and fit with this particular district: who a candidate listens to, who helped put them there, whether they seem capable of disagreeing with those people, and whether their instincts resemble the voters they want to represent.
That matters particularly in NH-1. A successful representative has to move comfortably among its very different political communities rather than merely excite one of them. He or she has to be able to walk into a Portsmouth coffee shop, a Manchester union hall, a Rochester diner and a Lakes Region town meeting without sounding as though Washington wrote the script.
By that standard, Noveletsky is too far to the right for me, particularly on immigration. DiLorenzo is more thoughtful than I originally gave him credit for, but I remain uneasy about electing another Republican whose political future is tied so closely to Trump and the MAGA apparatus around him.
Sullivan remains impressive. I admire her Marine service, and on defense and congressional war powers she may have the strongest thinking in the field. But as I examined the biography and the network surrounding her, I found myself becoming less certain rather than more.
With Shaheen, the opposite happened.
I started out subtracting the family name, assuming that without Jeanne Shaheen there might not be much left. Instead, the closer I looked, the more there was.
That doesn’t eliminate the inherited advantage, erase the ARMI question or make me suddenly fond of political dynasties. It means that when I tested what mattered most to me — experience that appears genuine, judgment shaped by experience beyond the usual Washington political pipeline, some evidence of independence and a temperament that seems suited to this odd, politically mixed district — Shaheen’s candidacy held up best.
I started this skeptical of Stefany Shaheen and, if anything, inclined to discount her because of the name she inherited. She changed my mind the hard way. The more I checked the record, the more I found real accomplishment behind the biography: a company she actually built, years of health-care advocacy that began long before this campaign, serious local public service, and positions that appear to come from thought rather than polling.
I also found questions worth asking, particularly around ARMI, and I’m more comfortable endorsing a candidate after finding something that bothers me than after finding nothing at all. Shaheen did not win me over because of her mother, her endorsements or her political connections. She won me over because, after I went looking for exaggeration, shortcuts and convenient mythology, most of what remained was solid.
For someone who enjoys digging until the simple story becomes complicated, that is about the best recommendation I can give.
Of these four front-runners, Stefany Shaheen is the one who has earned my endorsement.