Joyce Craig is running for Governor to strengthen communities and create opportunities for everyone to succeed. Joyce knows firsthand that New Hampshire’s state government has to do more to tackle our shared challenges and support working families. Joyce has a proven record of taking on tough fights and delivering results. As Mayor of Manchester, Joyce created thousands of good-paying jobs, worked with law enforcement to reduce violent crime by nearly 40%, and delivered thousands of housing units to the city. Joyce has the executive experience to take on the tough fights for all of us and will work to lower costs and will veto a sales or income tax, tackle the housing crisis, protect reproductive freedom and more.
Lowering Costs and Supporting Working Families
On everything from energy prices, to housing, and rising property taxes, hardworking families are facing increased costs that are impacting our quality of life. Joyce is from a blue-collar family, her dad was an IBEW union electrician, she knows that too many families are struggling to get by and are being left behind by policies that favor the rich. As Mayor, Joyce saw how decisions at the State House to reduce state funding for public education and retirement were shifted to cities and towns and ultimately to local taxpayers. That’s wrong, and as Governor, Joyce will work to support our working families and stop the downshifting that raises your local property taxes and she’ll always veto a sales or income tax.
As mayor, Joyce focused on creating good-paying jobs and supported hundreds of small businesses opening. Joyce’s office led the application of a competitive federal grant and Manchester was the only municipality in the entire country to win, bringing $44 million to the state. This grant will foster the innovative bio-manufacturing industry and will help create nearly 10,000 direct jobs and more than 40,000 indirect jobs in New Hampshire. In 2023, Joyce led an effort to designate southern New Hampshire as the ‘ReGen Valley’ Tech Hub, this resulted in an additional $44 million coming to New Hampshire for economic development. Joyce’s office also helped secure $24 million for infrastructure and $20 million for a new transportation hub from the federal government. Joyce supported working families in Manchester by establishing a $15 minimum wage for all full-time city and school district employees. As Governor, Joyce will continue to support working families by supporting innovative industries, opposing so-called “right-to-work” legislation, increasing the minimum wage, increasing access to quality affordable health care, and combating the housing crisis.
Joyce’s commitment to working families has earned her the endorsement of 18 major labor organizations including the New Hampshire AFL-CIO, Teamsters, AFSCME, New Hampshire Building Trades, Carpenters, IBEW, and more.
Tackling the Housing Crisis
Hardworking families, young people, and seniors are struggling to find affordable housing in our state, and this crisis will only get worse unless we act. New Hampshire is on track to need 60,000 new housing units by 2030 to meet demand. We need to encourage development and provide the resources necessary for cities and towns across our state to build housing that meets the needs of their community. Failing to address the housing crisis will push workers and families from our state, exacerbating New Hampshire’s workforce shortage. As Mayor, Joyce has the hands-on experience of working with developers in Manchester to deliver over 2,000 units, including more than 500 affordable units and broke ground on one of the largest affordable housing developments in state history. Joyce allocated more than $30 million to housing initiatives and started the first comprehensive review of zoning in decades. As Governor, Joyce will act with urgency to deliver more homes for hardworking families and cut the red tape to help build more housing.
Protecting and Expanding Reproductive Freedom
Joyce Craig is the only candidate for Governor with a comprehensive plan to protect and expand access to reproductive health care. Joyce’s first TV ad highlighted Joyce’s personal story of needing reproductive health care following a miscarriage. In states across the country, extreme abortion bans are putting women’s lives at risk. Following the overturn of Roe v. Wade, Governors are the last line of defense. As Governor, Joyce will codify Roe v. Wade to ensure that Granite Staters are able to access reproductive health care and abortion in New Hampshire.
Read Joyce’s full reproductive rights plan
Read Joyce’s Union Leader Op-Ed: ‘I’ll Always Protect Reproductive Freedom’
Strengthening Public Education
Joyce first got involved in public service when she ran for school board when her children were in elementary school. Joyce is the proud parent of a public school teacher and knows how hard our educators work to support and educate our children. Joyce knows that public education creates opportunities for our students and it is still one of the core issues that drives Joyce’s service. As Mayor, Joyce took action to improve Manchester’s public schools. Joyce implemented the first standardized curriculum for K-12, lowered class sizes, started the state’s first dual-language immersion program, raised teacher pay and increased training and professional development opportunities for educators. Joyce believes that public tax dollars should go towards public education and opposes the state’s runaway school voucher program that is costing taxpayers millions of dollars for private and religious schools. Joyce also believes we need a Commissioner of Education that believes in public education and won’t undermine our educators. As Governor, Joyce will work to strengthen our public schools so that every child, no matter where they live, can receive a quality public education.
Lowering Energy Costs and Protecting our Environment
New Hampshire has some of the highest energy costs in the entire country, impacting hardworking families and small businesses. New Hampshire needs to take a comprehensive approach to lower costs, diversify our energy portfolio, and protect our environment for future generations. We need to transition away from fossil fuels, encourage clean and renewable energy development, expand proven cost-saving initiatives for residents such as energy efficiency programs, and pursue off-shore wind development. These initiatives will save residents money and are the right approach to help mitigate the climate crisis. Joyce has a proven record of expanding clean energy and lowering costs for residents. Under her leadership, Manchester built the largest municipal solar array in the state, saving taxpayers money on energy costs and reducing the city’s carbon emissions by 60%.
As Governor, Joyce will also take action to protect our state’s natural resources. Joyce believes we need to address the PFAS contamination crisis and hold polluters accountable, and we need a moratorium on new landfill siting while we review and update state regulations. This past year has shown that we need to look at climate resiliency when building and updating our infrastructure. Flooding in western and northern New Hampshire and on the seacoast have shown that our state’s infrastructure is not prepared to deal with the increasing severity of climate-related storms.
Public Safety and Reducing Gun Violence
Nothing is more important to Joyce than ensuring our communities and residents are safe. As Mayor of Manchester, Joyce worked closely with the Manchester Police Department to implement data-driven solutions to public safety concerns. Joyce increased the Manchester police complement to the largest in city history, increased training for police officers, implemented police-worn body cameras, established more community policing efforts, and launched the city’s first gun violence reduction strategy. Joyce also increased community resources and hired community health workers to help respond to non-violent incidents. These initiatives led to a nearly 40% reduction in violent crime during Joyce’s tenure and it is the same approach she will take to public safety as Governor.
Joyce also understands the serious threats to public safety caused by New Hampshire’s weak gun safety laws. Joyce will work to pass common-sense gun safety legislation to keep our communities, children, and families safe from gun violence.
Read Joyce’s full gun violence prevention plan
Combating the Opioid, Mental Health, and Homelessness Crisis
New Hampshire has grappled with the opioid crisis that has impacted every community and countless families in our state for nearly 30 years. This public health crisis has exacerbated the mental health and homelessness crises in our state and Joyce believes we need to take a comprehensive approach to address these challenges. When Joyce first took office in Manchester, it took someone seeking recovery two to three weeks to be connected with services, in Joyce’s first month she was able to bring that time down to two to three days. Joyce implemented the state’s first harm reduction strategy, and hired an overdose prevention officer to help coordinate the city's response to this crisis. During her tenure, Joyce helped reduce opioid overdoses by 15%. As Governor, Joyce will ensure that the programs implemented by the state are data-driven and focused on getting individuals connected to the services they need.
As Governor, Joyce will take a housing-first approach to addressing the homelessness crisis in our state. She understands that in order to stabilize an individual experiencing substance misuse disorder or mental health issues, you need to first ensure they have a stable place to live. Joyce believes we need more beds for people experiencing a mental health crisis, and we need to attract more mental health professionals to our state. As Mayor, Joyce opened the state’s first city-run and funded homeless shelter, partnered with the National Alliance to End Homelessness, and hired a Director of Housing Stability to reduce homelessness and provide people with the support they needed to find a safe home. As a result of these initiatives, Joyce helped reduce homeless encampments in Manchester by 70%.
Defending Our Right to Vote
Voting rights in New Hampshire have faced countless challenges as Republicans have focused on passing legislation to make it harder for Granite Staters to participate in our democracy. Republicans have even passed legislation that would require Granite Staters to provide proof of citizenship, such as a passport or birth certificate, preventing eligible voters who may not have access to these documents from registering to vote. As Mayor, Joyce took action to protect our voting rights and help more eligible voters participate in our elections. She implemented electronic voting checklists to speed up voting, translated voting materials into multiple languages, and modernized outdated voting machines. Manchester also ran voter registration drives in underrepresented communities, offered free rides to the polls on city buses on Election Day, and ran absentee ballot programs for senior living facilities. Joyce believes we should make voting easier for all eligible voters and pass online voter registration, no-excuse absentee voting, supports an independent redistricting commission, and ensure that our elections remain safe from interference by improving and updating our election infrastructure.
Legalizing Cannabis
Joyce believes it is past time to pass cannabis legalization in New Hampshire. Joyce favors a model that encourages small businesses and entrepreneurship, allows limited homegrow for patients, and protects medicinal marijuana. As Governor, Joyce will work with legislators to implement a system that works for New Hampshire and will help bring in revenue that we are losing to surrounding states that have all legalized recreational marijuana.