Craig launches campaign to packed Rex audience

MANCHESTER, NH – One day after her campaign officially transitioned from the exploratory phase into a full-fledged campaign for governor, Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig was joined by approximately 400 people who gathered at the Rex Theatre for a launch celebration and to hear her message.

The selection of the venue was symbolic according to Craig, empty and forgotten at the beginning of her term and now re-opened and revitalized as part of a rejuvenating community.

Craig leaned into six years as the chief executive of New Hampshire’s largest city, noting that under her watch the city has actively hired new police officers, attracted new grants for the millyard that has seen the growth of a nascent biomanufacturing hub that is expected to attract 7,000 new jobs and that two thousand new housing units are under development.

She also said the Manchester School District has aimed to reinvest in public education but took that point as an opportunity for an indirect attack on New Hampshire Department of Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut, alluding to down-shifted budgetary responsibilities to the local level on items such as post-employment benefits for teachers as well as stating that Edelblut has actively sought to undermine public schools in favor of private and religious schools.

Those attacks against the Sununu administration also came in regard to other topics such as homelessness, where she insinuated that the state had become irrelevant at best and an obstacle at worst in helping localities address these problems.

“We could be doing so much more with a governor who is ready to tackle the issues of mental health conditions, the opioid epidemic and affordable housing instead of making cities and towns face these issues alone,” she said.

Craig also stressed the importance of the election in connection to more national issues addressed at the state level such as attacks on the rights of LGBTQ+ citizens, attacks on democracy itself, and the issue of abortion.

“The government has no role in a decision that belongs between a woman, her family, and her doctor and I will fight to make it stay that way,” she said.

She also connected her experience as Manchester’s mayor to the role of governor. While Manchester’s elections are officially non-partisan, she stated that she helped elect like-minded candidates to local office and would do so at the state level while also defeating well-known Republicans, such as former mayor and current Executive Councilor Ted Gatsas.

“I have won tough elections and I help Democrats win,” she said.

The next New Hampshire gubernatorial election will take place in November 2024, with party primaries set for September 2024.