The Story
The people have spoken.
I vaguely remember this…
In case you didn’t know, there’s been an election going on. On Tuesday, 14,775 votes were counted, and fortunately, we didn’t have to wait until Saturday to get our hands on a copy of the Bedford election results. Here’s the rundown.
Donkey or elephant?
The majority of Bedford citizens cast their ballots for Biden and Harris, with 7,521 votes. However, that was one of the only candidates that the town swung blue for. Almost every other contestant Bedford opted for was a Republican, with Jeanne Shaheen and Sue Mullen being the only exceptions.
So who did we vote for?
First, here come the heavy hitters. For governor, incumbent Chris Sununu beat Democratic nominee Dan Feltes by a hefty 6,000 votes. By a narrow margin of around 100 votes, Matt Mowers defeated Chris Pappas. And Jeanne Shaheen defended her seat as US Senator over Republican candidate Corky Messner.
And did they win?
Fun fact: Bedford isn’t the only town in New Hampshire. Although Matt Mowers was the favorite in our town, Chris Pappas won his Congress seat back by the rest of NH’s standards. But don’t get too upset, because everything other candidate Bedford voted for was elected, like Sununu, Shaheen, and nationally, Biden.
What about the local stuff?
Ah yes, your friendly neighborhood state officials. Ted Gatsas won Executive Counsilor, Denise Ricciardi won State Senator, and every Republican nominee for State Representative (Hillsborough District 7) except Stephen Kendra won. Sorry, Stephen. For Hillsborough District 41, Lisa Nash was beaten by Laurie Sanborn. And as for the rest of the ballot, all the way down was Republican, from Sheriff to County Commissioner.
What does it all mean?
With almost 1,000 more people voting than in 2016, Bedford was definitely politically active this year (you could also tell from all those darn signs, too). However, despite Bedford voting primarily Republican, there was still an increase in Democratic votes this year. In 2016, Donald Trump held the majority vote, while this year, Biden reigned supreme in town. As well as this, many other Republicans held bigger leads over their positions in 2016 than in the 2020 election.
The Runaway
No matter what party you affiliate with, Dan Dong is still cooler than all of us.
What to Say…
When your English teacher goes rogue…
On October 23, online website Project Forever Free published an article by BHS English teacher Laura McDermott, which criticizes the antiracism ideology that she feels is flawed, discusses her loss of support towards the Black Lives Matter movement, and states that her outrage at the death of George Floyd has “cooled into skepticism”. She also claims that just as many white people as people of color are the victims of police brutality in the US, and jabs at the credibility of the #MeToo movement. So if you’re playing Controversial Subject Bingo with us, you probably just got 5 in a row! Of course, a lot of students are less than thrilled about McDermott’s change in opinion. “A BHS Senior who used to really like you”, “a bhs junior who used to want your approval”, and “A Concerned BHS Student” express their anger and disappointment loudly in the comments section, and current/former students of hers that we personally reached out to are also distressed by the publication.
When you had one last shred of hope…
On Saturday, football went against Goffstown in the playoffs. The first quarter ended with no points scored for either team. At the half, both teams were tied with 7 points. Goffstown then took the lead, scoring 14 more points in the third quarter, and the end score was 35-7, favoring Goffstown. Ouch. Goffstown will go on to play Winnacunnet on the 14th for the championship game, and Bedford will shed a silent tear for the untimely ending of our favorite season. On an exciting note, the volleyball team tried to restore our good name in the finals, and are now state champs! They also played on Saturday, and defended their undefeated title. So we have that going for us.
Things to Know
Wednesday who?
This Wednesday is Veteran’s Day and we have no school.
Everyone makes mistakes…
In this week’s email, we made a little oopsie. Laurie Sanborn won for Hillsborough District 41, not Lisa Nash.