New Hampshire Senate Majority Leader Dan Feltes hopes he is elected New Hampshire’s governor on November 3rd. He faces a daunting challenge against two-term Republican Chris Sununu, who has double digit leads in multiple polls. Feltes tells WAMC North Country Bureau Chief Pat Bradley after four years under Sununu, residents aren’t better off.
“We got to get out of this mess in the way that looks out up for ordinary people and working people and working families. Chris Sununu calls himself a Trump guy through and through. Literally his own description of himselves. And his policies and his actions mirror in many ways that of Trump including on health care and including on choice. And with the confirmation of Judge Barrett to the United States Supreme Court,and the likely possibility that Roe v Wade is overridden and sent back to the states Granite Staters want a pro-choice governor. I've been 100% pro-choice every step of the way, endorsed by Planned Parenthood, NARAL pro-choice America, fought for access to a full range of reproductive health care services. And so Granite Staters need to trust that their governor is going to be pro-choice and be with them. We have a long bipartisan tradition of choice in the state of New Hampshire and it's time for a governor that's actually pro-choice. It's also time for a governor that believes in health care as a right not a privilege. All my life and career I've worked to fight for working people and working families first as a legal assistant attorney with New Hampshire Legal Assistance for about a decade representing low to middle income families and seniors and veterans getting access to health care taking on the health insurance industry. In the State Senate for three terms and as Majority Leader continue to take on the health insurance industry to get access to addiction treatment, to get access to prescription drug relief. I don't take any corporate money or corporate PAC money. This is a people powered campaign. We're looking out for people. We're looking out for their healthcare and Chris Sununu has over 10 years of advocating for the repeal without a replacement of the Affordable Care Act. Now Obamacare is at risk and Granite Staters want someone they can trust on health care especially now in a pandemic. And they don't trust Chris Sununu.”
Pat Bradley: “Dan Feltes you mentioned that you are working there for the working class. You're trying to appeal to the working class. But when I looked at some of the most recent polls at least three of them are showing that you're 20 to 25 points behind the incumbent Republican Chris Sununu. Why do you think you're so far behind when you are appealing to the working class? And number two, can you make up that big a difference in this last week?”
Dan Feltes: “Well we got momentum. We're not fixated on the polls. We're fixated on helping people. That's what I've done my entire life. I grew up in a working class household. My dad worked in a furniture factory for 45 years. The same furniture factory doing roughly the same job day in and day out. My mom she worked the night shift while raising four kids. The gifts they gave me my parents were the values of hard work, honesty and integrity and looking out for everybody. That's what I've done my entire life in service as a legal aid attorney for about a decade right out of law school up until serving the state senate and in the State Senate, for three terms and as Majority Leader delivering real results for working people and families all across the state. Chris Sununu time and time again, just like Trump, has sided with the corporate special interest, has even given out special tax treatment to his family and his friends. And while vetoing the minimum wage took a pay raise of $31,000 for himself as governor. And the more and more people hear about that the more and more they're coming over. It's time for a change here in New Hampshire on health care, on workers’ rights, lifting up the struggles of working class folks.”
Pat Bradley: “Many people face challenges when they're running against an incumbent especially one that's been in office for a while. What have you found have been the key challenges in running against the Republican incumbent?”
Dan Feltes: “Well, I just don't have a household name. Chris Sununu does. His dad was governor. His brother was a US senator. He's running for a rare third term as governor. So name id is an issue but we're working hard. People know what's at stake.”
Pat Bradley: “What about the situation with the pandemic? Would you handle it differently? What about the fact that the administration there has been rated fairly good?”
Dan Feltes: “Well, they actually haven't. We have a worse situation than either Vermont or Maine. Cases are going up while schools are shutting down. Chris Sununu didn't have a plan for schools. Punted it all down to the local level just like Trump punted it down as well on schools. No reopening plan and no plan on masks either. We're only state New England without a common sense public masks requirement. Chris Sununu like Trump doesn't listen to the medical experts on masks. And there's no more important thing in a pandemic than our healthcare system and Chris Sununu supports the repeal without a replacement of Obamacare which would devastate the health insurance industry and devastate coverage in New Hampshire over 100,000 Granite Staters would lose coverage - 50,000 through Medicaid expansion, something that I advocated on, we got reauthorized, single best way to deal with the behavioral health crisis which has been exacerbated in this crisis. We got to move forward for everybody. Lift people up in this crisis. Lift working people and working families up. That's what I've been doing my entire life in service as a legal aid attorney and in state senate. And that's what I'll do as governor.”
Democrat Dan Feltes is challenging incumbent Republican Governor Chris Sununu of New Hampshire. WAMC has offered Sununu an interview opportunity.
