Melanie Levesque of Brookline won the Democratic primary for Executive Council District 5 and will face the Republican incumbent, Dave Wheeler, in November.

Levesque won the district, which includes Antrim, Bennington, Francestown, Greenfield, Greenville, Jaffrey, Lyndeborough, Mason, New Ipswich, Rindge, Temple and Wilton, with about 12,200 votes – 62.2% of ballots cast. Her primary opponent, Shoshanna Kelly, received around 7,400 votes, according to the Associated Press.

Levesque said she’s grateful to enter this next stage and will be stepping up her campaign in preparation to take on Wheeler.

“One of the most important things for me is to be able to bring people together,” Levesque said.

She’ll be knocking on doors and speaking at house parties, and she hopes to talk with “even Republicans who may put country over party. I think that is really important, and talking about our future and our shared value.”

Levesque grew up in Nashua and has lived in Brookline for the past 30 years. She previously served several terms in Concord as a state representative, was the first African-American woman to serve in the New Hampshire state Senate and owns a telecommunications consulting business. 

Kelly, an at-large alderwoman in Nashua, was running on a mission to restore funding for reproductive health care. She’d originally gotten into politics because she was frustrated by people who she felt weren’t representing her well. Like Levesque, she owns her own business, a creative advertising firm.

When Levesque saw now-Democratic nominee for governor, Joyce Craig, speak at a campaign event, she said, she was inspired to run because she knew Craig would need a “strong” Executive Council to get things done.

Levesque said she hopes to bring support for reproductive health care funding and transportation to the Council. She hopes to represent all different kinds of people.

“We all have the right to thrive, and I feel that we can’t use our own personal beliefs to make law, because law is black and white but people’s lives are all different shades of gray,” Levesque said. “We need to recognize that we’re not all monolith.”

Wheeler, who lives in Milford, did not face any Republican challengers. He’s currently serving in his seventh term on the Executive Council, which he’s done on and off since 2001. Before that, he was a state representative and senator.

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