Announcement for U.S. Senate candidacy - Oct. 5, 2015

Wherever you go in New Hampshire, our state's enormous potential isn't just something you see, it's something you feel. And we've been working together to realize that potential. We've promoted business innovation and helped expand economic opportunity. We froze tuition at our state universities and lowered it at our community colleges; extended health care coverage to over 40,000 hard-working Granite Staters; began fixing our highways, roads and bridges. Republicans and Democrats came together to cut taxes for research and development and small businesses while maintaining fiscal responsibility. We held the line against an income or sales tax. We balanced the budget and created a business-friendly environment that has New Hampshire's unemployment rate at the lowest levels since 2008.

Now, to continue working to realize our state's full potential, we need a response from Washington that meet the progress we're making here at home, and that's exactly why I'm running for the United States Senate – because Washington has given in to powerful special interests and lobbyists who rigged the system for themselves and against the middle class.

I believe we can do better for New Hampshire families. Better for the Manchester teacher I met who told me she can't afford to send her own child to college. Better for the young woman who has a creative idea that can start a new small business. Better for the police officer who tells me we are losing too many of our children to drug abuse. Better for the seniors who watch the special interests prey on their hard-earned Social Security and Medicare benefits. And better for the thousands of women who've had access to health care services threatened by politicians playing games with Planned Parenthood.

Washington has lost its way on too many of the priorities that matter to New Hampshire, and you can count on me to take my bipartisan approach, my common sense, and my commitment to problem solving and results to the Senate. Together we can keep moving our economy ahead, protect our land and water, and keep our country safe.

Because the Granite State needs a senator who knows that New Hampshire comes first and leads like it.