Kelly Ann Ayotte ( ; born June 27, 1968) is an American attorney and politician serving since 2025 as the 83rd governor of New Hampshire. A member of the Republican Party, she served from 2011 to 2017 as a United States senator from New Hampshire and from 2004 to 2009 as the 27th attorney general of New Hampshire.
Born in Nashua, New Hampshire, Ayotte is a graduate of Pennsylvania State University, and Villanova University School of Law. She worked as a law clerk at the New Hampshire Supreme Court before entering private practice. She served as a prosecutor for the New Hampshire Department of Justice and briefly as the legal counsel to Governor Craig Benson before returning to the New Hampshire Department of Justice to serve as deputy attorney general. In 2004, Benson appointed Ayotte as attorney general of New Hampshire after Peter Heed resigned. She became the first woman to serve as New Hampshire's attorney general. She was twice reappointed by Governor John Lynch. Ayotte resigned as attorney general in 2009 to run for the U.S. Senate after Senator Judd Gregg announced his retirement.
In September 2010, Ayotte narrowly defeated lawyer Ovide Lamontagne in the Republican primary for the U.S. Senate. She then defeated Democratic congressman Paul Hodes in the general election with 60% of the vote. Ayotte was mentioned as a possible running mate for Republican nominee Mitt Romney in the 2012 presidential election. In 2016, Democratic Governor Maggie Hassan defeated Ayotte in her reelection bid by 1,017 votes (0.14%). After President Donald Trump nominated Judge Neil Gorsuch to the United States Supreme Court, the Trump administration chose Ayotte to be the sherpa in charge of the White House team for Gorsuch's confirmation.
Ayotte was elected governor of New Hampshire in 2024, defeating Democratic nominee Joyce Craig.
Early life, education, and career Kelly Ann Ayotte was born in Nashua, New Hampshire, on June 27, 1968, the daughter of Kathleen M. (née Sullivan) and Marc Frederick Ayotte. Her father's family is of French–Canadian descent. Ayotte attended Nashua High School and received a B.A. from Pennsylvania State University in political science. At Penn State, she was initiated into the Delta Gamma sorority, served as Panhellenic Council President, and was a member of the secretive Senior Honor Society Lion's Paw. In 1993, Ayotte received a J.D. from Villanova University School of Law, where she served as editor of the Environmental Law Journal.
Ayotte clerked for Sherman D. Horton, associate justice of the New Hampshire Supreme Court, for one year. From 1994 to 1998, she was an associate at McLane, Graf, Raulerson & Middleton, a Manchester law firm.
In 1998, Ayotte joined the office of the New Hampshire attorney general as a prosecutor. In 2001, she married Joseph Daley, a pilot in the National Guard. In 2003, Ayotte became legal counsel to Governor Craig Benson. Three months later, she returned to the attorney general's office as deputy attorney general. In June 2004, Benson appointed Ayotte as attorney general of the state of New Hampshire after Peter Heed resigned.
New Hampshire attorney general
Clean air emissions standards Ayotte joined eight other states' attorneys general to sue federal regulators over a rules change that made clean air emissions standards for power plants less strict and eliminated clean air reporting and monitoring requirements.
In 2005, the court agreed with Ayotte and the others that the Environmental Protection Agency must measure changes in the emissions from power plants and could not exempt power plants from reporting their emissions.
Prosecution of murder cases As assistant attorney general, Ayotte prosecuted two defendants for the 2001 Dartmouth College murders in Etna, New Hampshire.
As attorney general, Ayotte prosecuted the high-profile case surrounding the 2006 murder of Manchester police officer Michael Briggs in the line of duty. It resulted in a conviction and death penalty sentence. Members of Briggs' family praised her leadership in ads for her 2010 Senate campaign.
Ayotte v. Planned Parenthood of Northern New England
In 2003, the United States District Court for the District of New Hampshire found the Parental Notification Prior to Abortion Act, a New Hampshire law requiring parental notification of a minor's abortion, unconstitutional, and enjoined its enforcement. In 2004, New Hampshire Attorney General Peter Heed appealed the ruling to the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, which affirmed the district court's ruling. In 2004, Ayotte appealed the First Circuit's ruling to the Supreme Court, over the objection of incoming Governor John Lynch. She personally argued the case before the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court unanimously vacated the district court's ruling and remanded the case back to the district court, holding that it was improper for the district court to invalidate the statute completely instead of just severing its problematic portions or enjoining its unconstitutional applications.Ayotte v. Planned Parenthood of N. New England. Law.cornell.edu. Retrieved on November 13, 2010. In 2007, the New Hampshire legislature repealed the law, mooting the need for rehearing by the district court.
In 2008, Planned Parenthood sued to recover its attorney fees and court costs from the New Hampshire Department of Justice. In 2009, Ayotte, as attorney general, authorized a payment of $300,000 to Planned Parenthood to settle the suit."In '09, Ayotte OK’d settling abortion case", Nashua Telegraph, September 3, 2010.
New Hampshire Institute of Politics While attorney general, Ayotte served as a member of the Public Advisory Board at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College. In 2011, she returned to the Institute as a senator to talk to political science students.
In 2013, Ayotte attended a forum at Saint Anselm College to explain the Never Contract With the Enemy Act (S. 675), which she co-sponsored with Richard Blumenthal. She was accompanied by Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction Stuart Bowen. They addressed military contractor fraud and how to prevent funds paid to military contractors in Afghanistan and Iraq from winding up in the hands of parties hostile to the United States.
U.S. Senate (2011-2017)
Elections
2010
Ayotte resigned as attorney general on July 7, 2009, to explore a run for U.S. Senate in 2010.Ovide Lamontagne to raise funds for rival – Shira Toeplitz. Politico. Retrieved on November 13, 2010. The crowded Republican primary field included former congressional and gubernatorial candidate Ovide M. Lamontagne, businessman and owner of NH1 News William Harrison Binnie, and State Representative Tom Alciere. Ayotte had never run for office, but narrowly won the primary election on September 14, 2010. Ayotte was endorsed by John McCain, Sarah Palin, John Thune, Tom Coburn, Mitt Romney, Tim Pawlenty, Haley Barbour, and Rick Santorum. In the general election, she defeated Democratic nominee U.S. Representative Paul Hodes, 60% to 37%. 2016
In 2016, Ayotte ran for reelection to the U.S. Senate against Maggie Hassan, New Hampshire's sitting governor.
In February 2016, the Koch Brothers-linked conservative advocacy group Americans for Prosperity announced that Ayotte was the lone vulnerable Republican U.S. senator the group would not support in 2016, due to her support for the Clean Power Plan to combat climate change.
On May 4, 2016, an Ayotte spokeswoman said Ayotte "intends to support the Republican nominee" for U.S. president but did not plan to make an endorsement. In October 2016, after lewd sexual comments Republican nominee Donald Trump made in a 2005 video came to light, Ayotte said that as a mother and a former prosecutor who had worked with victims, she could no longer vote for Trump, and would write in Mike Pence for president.
Ayotte lost her seat to Hassan by 1,017 votes.
Endorsements Ayotte was endorsed by the New Hampshire Troopers' Association, the New England Narcotics Enforcement Officers' Association, and the Manchester Police Patrolmen's Association. She was also endorsed by the New Hampshire Union Leader, the Nashua Telegraph, the Caledonian-Record, and the Portsmouth Herald. The Herald endorsement was notable as it had endorsed Ayotte's opponent, Maggie Hassan, in Hassan's previous runs for office.
Tenure
Jobs and the economy Ayotte helped include provisions in the Every Student Succeeds Act to boost STEM education, particularly among girls and underrepresented minorities, and to support career and technical education in schools.
Ayotte strongly opposed the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's proposal to pass significant at-sea monitoring costs to New Hampshire's fishermen and brought NOAA officials to New Hampshire to hear from fishermen. NOAA later backed off from the proposal.
National security Ayotte served on the Senate Armed Services and Homeland Security Committees and was widely regarded as a leader on national security and foreign policy.
Ayotte led legislative efforts to keep suspected terrorists at Guantanamo Bay rather than closing it and transferring them to U.S. soil.
She was an outspoken critic of the Iran nuclear deal, saying that Iran is the largest state sponsor of terrorism in the world. She proposed strict new sanctions on Iran.
Ayotte was critical of the Obama administration's response to ISIS and called for increased airstrikes against ISIS.
Opiate and opioid response Ayotte was one of four senators, two Republicans and two Democrats, who introduced the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act, federal legislation to support local solutions and implement a comprehensive federal strategy to tackle the heroin and prescription opioid abuse epidemic. The bill was structured around prevention, treatment, recovery, and support for first responders.
Ayotte also cosponsored bills to improve care for infants born addicted or in withdrawal and help expectant and new mothers struggling with addiction get treatment. She backed successful efforts to better look after kids in schools who are struggling with addiction issues at home and to stop the flow of drugs across the southern border.
In 2007, New Hampshire, under then-Attorney-General Ayotte, was the only New England state not to join a lawsuit against Purdue Pharma for falsely advertising OxyContin. Purdue Pharma ultimately settled the case for $600 million, with $19.5 million being disbursed among 26 states' and the District of Columbia's substance abuse and opioid response programs.Sue Lindsey, (May 11, 2007) OxyContin Maker, Execs Guilty of Deceit USA Today reproducing and Associated Press report
From 2009 to 2015, then-Senator Ayotte also received $138,650 from pharmaceutical companies and their lobbyists, more than any other New Hampshire politician in that period.
College affordability Ayotte was a vocal proponent of reauthorizing the Perkins Loan program, as she argued roughly 5,000 New Hampshire students relied on it.
Military and veterans issues Ayotte routinely included provisions in annual defense authorization bills that supported the work being done at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard and Pease Air National Guard Base, and by the New Hampshire National Guard. She also strongly opposed further rounds of the base realignment and closing commission.