Since 2006, control of the state legislature and New Hampshire's congressional seats have switched back and forth between Republicans and Democrats.
Although the state has voted for the Democratic candidate in the last six presidential elections since 2004, it has done so by relatively small, however consistent margins.
State Senator Jeanne Shaheen was elected governor in 1996, 1998, and 2000, and following Republican Craig Benson's win in 2002, Democrat John Lynch flipped the seat in 2004.
In 2008, Democrats retained their majorities, governorship and congressional seats, and former governor Jeanne Shaheen defeated incumbent Republican John E. Sununu for the U.S. Senate in a rematch of the 2002 contest.
Barack Obama won the simultaneous presidential election and carried every New Hampshire county for the Democrats for the first time since 1852.
[5] However, the state narrowly went to Democrat Hillary Clinton over Republican Donald Trump in that year's presidential election.
Meanwhile, Democratic governor Maggie Hassan defeated incumbent Republican Kelly Ayotte to join Senator Jeanne Shaheen and Representatives Carol Shea-Porter and Ann McLane Kuster to make the entire congressional delegation represented by the Democratic party for the first time since 1854.
In the 2018 midterm elections, both chambers of the state legislature returned to Democratic control, while Sununu was reelected as governor, resulting in divided government.
While New Hampshire Democrats retained their seats in the 2020 federal elections, Republicans regained the majority in the state's Senate, House of Representatives, and Executive Council.
[9] New Hampshire has legalized off-grid living, not requiring residents to pay a connection fee to local electric companies.
[10] Compared to the New England area, and even nationwide, New Hampshire is noted to maintain a homeschool-friendly approach to education.
New Hampshire is New England's most gun-friendly state and fourth most lenient in the country, according to Everytown for Gun Safety.
[citation needed] The state doesn't require gun owners to get a license or register their weapons.
[13][14] The anti-regulatory sentiment has often helped Republicans maintain a competitive presence in state and local-level politics.
It is "broad-based" (affecting even renters, indirectly) but does not attract the same controversy because municipal expenditures are voted locally, typically by Town Meeting, in which every voter can participate.
[22] This reflected local discontent with restrictions on liberty or profitability, rather than any expectation that their own states plus the U.S. Congress would grant the necessary permission.
[23] The 2008 elections resulted in women holding 13 of the 24 available seats in the New Hampshire Senate, a first for any legislative body in the United States.
(However, the U.S. Supreme Court had ruled in 1977 that those who object to the motto may tape over or cover up the words, either partially or completely.
[28] New Hampshire's libertarian reputation led the Free State Project to select it by vote for a mass in-migration.
[37] Some Free Staters have conducted acts of civil disobedience to demonstrate their opposition to what they call "victimless crimes."
The close encounters with the "Robin Hooders" resulted in one officer resigning his position and a lawsuit filed by the City of Keene citing harassment of their employees.