Cinde Warmington on New Hampshire governor bid

What about the trade war with Canada? New Hampshire-- I've been there many, many times-- has fond relationships with Canada and integrated economic relationships with Canada. Yes, and being a border state, we have a lot of trade with Canada. And this trade war that Trump has started has been hurting tourism in our state. We've already seen tourism down by 30%, which is hurting our small businesses. We've seen the cost of goods go up, the cost of lumber that we need for building houses, the cost of farm products, equipment, feed, the cost of diesel fuel. This trade war is really crushing the people of our state, and we have a governor, in Kelly Ayotte, who is completely unwilling to stand up to Donald Trump and fight for the people of New Hampshire. As governor, I will stand up and fight for the people of New Hampshire, making sure that President Trump knows the damage that his tariffs are doing to the people of our state. You invoke the name of Kelly Ayotte, the governor, but the most recent polls have her ahead of you by at least 10 percentage points. This is an uphill climb. I'm sure you'll acknowledge that. Are you relying only on the atmosphere?

It's going to be a tough race. It's going to be a tough race. There's no question. But Kelly Ayotte actually has some of the lowest approval ratings we've seen of any governor in more than 30 years. And everywhere I go across the state, people are completely fed up with the inaction of Kelly Ayotte's administration and all of the things that she's doing that are actually driving up costs for the people of our state-- putting in an education voucher scheme, jacking up the cost of property taxes across our state, and increasing premiums on the most vulnerable of Granite Staters. People are really fed up. They're ready for a change. I'm ready to bring it to them. Cinde, an issue that has persisted in not only this race but an earlier race you made for governor in 2024 is your history as a Purdue Pharma lobbyist. Early in the 2000s, before the state legislature, you said that OxyContin was not subject to abuse, was a miracle drug. You were clearly parroting the party line, the company line. How much do you regret that advocacy then, and how do you deal with this issue now, which persists? As I have said many times, I did not, of course, know of Purdue Pharma's fraudulent scheme back in 2002, but I most certainly regret ever having anything to do with Purdue Pharma, given what we know now. I have been profoundly affected by addiction in my own family, and it is an issue that I have spent a lifetime working on. And I am convinced that the people of New Hampshire recognize that Kelly Ayotte is attacking me because she is unable to defend her own record as governor, that she is unable to defend the fact that she has sent the cost of health care and housing and school property taxes through the roof, that our electric rates are some of the highest in the country because of her failed policies. I think the people of New Hampshire recognize that Kelly Ayotte has no record to run on.

Cinde Warmington, the Democratic nominee for governor, great state of New Hampshire, I appreciate the time. Thank you.