'Rejection': Conservative GOP governor torpedoes 6 different far-right MAGA bills

While Massachusetts remains a Democratic stronghold, it's New England neighbor New Hampshire is much more of a swing state.

New Hampshire has a conservative Republican governor: Kelly Ayotte, who followed another GOP governor, Chris Sununu. But New Hampshire's U.S. Senate delegation is entirely Democratic with both Maggie Hassan and Jeanne Shaheen representing the Granite State in the upper chamber of Congress. And Democratic 2024 presidential nominee Kamala Harris won New Hampshire by roughly 3 percent compared to 25 percent in Massachusetts.

On Tuesday, July 15, Ayotte defied far-right MAGA Republicans when she vetoed New Hampshire House Bill 324. The measure encouraged parents to help remove from classrooms material they considered obscene, but critics of the bill argued that it went too far and allowed gay-oriented literature to be unfairly targeted even if wasn't explicit.

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Ayotte, according to the New Hampshire Bulletin, said of her HB 324 veto, "Current state law appears to provide a mechanism for parents through their local school district to exercise their rights to ensure their children are not exposed to inappropriate materials. Therefore, I do not believe the State of New Hampshire needs to, nor should it, engage in the role of addressing questions of literary value and appropriateness, particularly where the system created by House Bill 324 calls for monetary penalties based on subjective standards."

But HB 324 wasn't the only MAGA-sponsored bill Ayotte vetoed on July 15.

The New Republic's Malcolm Ferguson reports, "There was also House Bill 148, which would have allowed stores, jails, and workspaces to ignore gender identity and categorize people based on their assigned gender at birth…. She killed House Bill 358, which would have streamlined the 'religious exemption' process for parents who don't want to vaccinate their children; House Bill 446, which would have required schools to receive parental permission to conduct non-academic surveys; and House Bill 667, an anti-abortion bill that would have forced students to view 'a high- quality computer generated animation or ultrasound video that shows the development of the heart, brain, and other vital organs in early fetal development,' according to The New Hampshire Bulletin."

In her veto of HB 148, Ayotte explained, "I believe there are important and legitimate privacy and safety concerns raised by biological males using places such as female locker rooms and being placed in female correctional facilities. At the same time, I see that House Bill 148 is overly broad and impractical to enforce, potentially creating an exclusionary environment for some of our citizens."

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Ferguson describes those vetoes as a firm rebuke of far-right culture warriors in her New England state.

The New Republic reporter notes, "Ayotte's vetoes are a rejection of her party's attempt to assert cultural control throughout the state, and the country. Lawmakers would need a two-thirds majority in both the state House and Senate to overturn Ayotte’s vetoes, which will be a very tall task given that Republicans don’t have those numbers."

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Read Malcolm Ferguson's full New Republic article at this link and The New Hampshire Bulletin's coverage here.