Portsmouth Mayor McEachern Takes Pass On 2026 Gubernatorial Democratic Primary

By Michael Graham, NH Journal

After weeks of speculation that he might play spoiler to Cinde Warmington’s bid for governor, Portsmouth Mayor Deaglan McEachern announced late Thursday he’s going to sit out the Democratic primary.

“A primary would divide attention when the people of New Hampshire need results,” McEachern told WMUR. “I’ll continue to fight to lower property taxes without abandoning the constitutional guarantee of public education, expand affordable housing, and take on rising energy and health care costs.”

McEachern comes from a political family. His father, Paul, represented Portsmouth in the State House and ran for governor four times, unsuccessfully. His aunt, Mary McEachern Keenan, also served as the mayor of Portsmouth from 1986 to 1987.

Deaglan McEachern was first elected as mayor in November 2021 after serving as a city councilor since 2019. Before that, he ran for the Democratic nomination in the NH-01 primary, finishing sixth in an eight-way race and winning less than three percent of the vote.

For months, Democrats have said both publicly and privately that Warmington would make another run at the Corner Office, despite losing to former Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig in the 2024 primary. But the former Executive Councilor spent months privately talking to reporters about getting into the race without making any public moves.

She finally declared her candidacy earlier this month, but the weeks of waffling — plus concerns about her viability as a challenger to Gov. Kelly Ayotte — fed rumors that McEachern was being lobbied to enter the race as a more formidable candidate.

“Thank you to everyone who reached out with encouragement and support,” McEachern said in his statement Thursday.

But McEachern had problems of his own. No straight White male has won a competitive Democratic primary for a major office in New Hampshire in two decades. Plus, only one Portsmouth mayor has been elected governor since the Civil War.

And that was a Republican.

Democratic activist Jay Sudukowski called McEachern “a talented three-term mayor of my hometown of Portsmouth. He’s young, he has a path to run for governor in the future, and I hope he will.

“He is the model public servant: accessible, transparent, and hardworking.”

Republicans had a different take.

“The mayor of New Hampshire’s least affordable city decided that his record of raising taxes and defunding the police wouldn’t be an easy sell statewide, so just like one of the low-flow toilets he was pushing to his constituents, he flushed his candidacy away without making a sound,” said NHGOP state party chair Scott Maltzie.

“We look forward to holding Opioid Lobbyist Cinde Warmington accountable for her disqualifying record of lobbying for Purdue Pharma, defending pill mills, and putting special interests over Granite State families.”

Some political professionals told NHJournal on background that McEachern’s decision amplifies the view that, while he’s an attractive and articulate politician, he’s not tough enough to be a viable candidate in a contested race.

“It’s a wimpy performance from the poor man’s Gavin Newsom,” one veteran campaign veteran said.

Others said McEachern’s interest in entering the race faded when the ICE facility story faded from the political scene. Warmington and her fellow Democrats had been using the unpopular proposal to score political points against Ayotte, creating a possible opening for a challenge.

On Tuesday, Ayotte announced DHS was dumping plans for the Merrimack facility, and on Thursday, McEachern announced he was out.

“The governor pulled a rabbit out of her hat on Merrimack, and the writing was on the wall,” another political operative told NHJournal. “And that’s what did it for Deaglan.”

Surdukowski pointed out another negative trend facing any Democratic challenging Ayotte.

“New Hampshire has denied a first-term governor’s reelection only once since 1912—the year the Titanic sank. The odds are not in your favor as a challenger of a first-term Granite State governor.”

This story was originally published by the NH Journal, an online news publication dedicated to providing fair, unbiased reporting on, and analysis of, political news of interest to New Hampshire. For more stories from the NH Journal, visit NHJournal.com.