Kelly Ayotte is the Governor of New Hampshire. She assumed office on January 8, 2025. Her current term ends on January 6, 2027. Ayotte was born on June 27, 1968, in Nashua, New Hampshire. She received a bachelor's degree from Pennsylvania State University in 1990 and a law degree from Villanova University in 1993. Ayotte worked as an associate at the law firm McLane, Graf, Raulerson & Middleton from 1994 to 1998, as a prosecutor for the Office of the New Hampshire Attorney General from 1998 to 2003, and as legal counsel for former Governor Craig Benson in 2003. She also worked for manufacturing companies BAE Systems, Inc. and Cirtronics, and she served as a board member for the nonprofits Swim with a Mission, Veterans Count, and the School Board of Saint Christopher Academy in Nashua. Ayotte became the state's first female attorney general when Benson appointed her New Hampshire attorney general in 2004. The following two governors, John H. Lynch and Maggie Hassan, reappointed Ayotte. In 2010, Ayotte defeated Paul W. Hodes 60.1%-36.8% to become a U.S. senator, where she chaired the Armed Services Subcommittee on Readiness and the Commerce Subcommittee on Aviation Operations and served on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, Small Business and Entrepreneurship, and Aging Committees. In the 2016 Senate election, Hassan defeated Ayotte by fewer than 800 votes.
