Democrat Karen Liot Hill decisively defeated Republican Kim Strathdee in the race for Executive Council District 2, winning 57.5% to 42.5%.

Dave Wheeler, a longtime Republican member of the council, will keep his seat in District 5. As of noon on Wednesday, he led Democratic challenger Melanie Levesque by almost 8 points.

Hill, a newcomer, served on the Lebanon City Council for 19 years and says her experience in local government has primed her for statewide office. She’ll represent several Monadnock region towns, including Peterborough, Hancock, Dublin and Sharon. She’ll replace Cinde Warmington, a Democrat who ran for governor but lost in the primary. She’s likely to be the only Democrat on the Executive Council in the coming term. When asked how she’ll work with Republican Gov.-elect Kelly Ayotte and the rest of the council, Hill said her experience as a city councilor and in local government have prepared her to do just that.

She also mentioned Ayotte’s election night speech, in which she pledged to be a governor for all Granite Staters, not just those who voted for her.

“I take that as an indication that we’ll be able to work together, and find common ground, and build consensus, and hopefully work together to make lives better for our residents in New Hampshire,” Hill said.

Most of the council’s purview is on nonpartisan issues, Hill said. The five-member governing body, created in 1679 to balance gubernatorial power, confirms the appointments of judges, commissioners and notaries, and holds power over state finances by approving contracts over $10,000. It also considers criminal pardon requests.

“My experience serving at the local level in a nonpartisan capacity for the last 20 years has prepared me to do this kind of work, and to be able to find common ground with my colleagues on the Executive Council, regardless of our party affiliation, and to always be working toward the best interests of my constituents,” Hill said.

Wheeler, who has served seven nonconsecutive terms on the council, pitched himself as a fiscal conservative, with his top priority for a potential next term on the council being to limit spending in a new state budget.

“Our taxes are relatively low, and our regulatory burden, compared to other states, is pretty good,” Wheeler said before the election. “I want to keep it that way. I want to keep the Live Free or Die state and the New Hampshire advantage.”

When asked for comment on his win, Wheeler said his opponent’s record in the Senate voting for a tax increase “kind of hurt her bad.”

Levesque, a former state senator, has maintained that she didn’t vote for a tax but for family medical leave. In this campaign, she said her priorities were supporting services like education, transportation and access to reproductive care. District 5 includes Antrim, Bennington, Francestown, Greenfield, Greenville, Jaffrey, Lyndeborough, Mason, New Ipswich, Rindge, Temple and Wilton.

Charlotte Matherly is the State House reporter for the Monadnock Ledger-Transcript and Concord Monitor in partnership with Report for America. Follow her on X at @charmatherly, or send her an email at cmatherly@cmonitor.com.