New Hampshire saw its Republican majorities in the Legislature expand on Election Day, and that holds true in the Monadnock region, as well.

Several Republican newcomers will replace retiring legislators, and one House seat in the area flipped red. Here are the new faces representing Monadnock towns in Concord this year.

Jack Flanagan (Republican)

Jack Flanagan, a former House majority leader, is making a return to Concord. He beat Democratic Rep. Karen Calabro and will serve Greenville, Mason, Hollis and Brookline. 

This will be his fifth term in the House. He also ran for Congress, taking second place in the Republican primary in 2016, and before seeking statewide office, he was a selectman and school board member in Brookline. He said one of his main priorities will be to tackle health care costs and employee suspension notices. Otherwise, Flanagan said he wants to keep himself open and available for constituent requests.

“It’s usually people that have had bad experiences with the state or something, or a situation that could be solved by new legislation,” Flanagan said.

During his prior terms, Flanagan said he has helped his towns secure funding for infrastructure like sidewalks and fiberoptics. As majority leader, he also opposed the Kinder Morgan oil pipeline that would’ve run through southern New Hampshire, instead advocating for updates to the existing one.

Rita Mattson (Republican)

Rita Mattson, who grew up in Atkinson, is a retired blue-collar worker. She stated on her website that she could “no longer stand back and watch” the political scene unfold in the United States, which is why she decided to run for public office.

Mattson, who lives in Dublin, will represent her Jaffrey, Rindge and her hometown in Concord for the next two years, pulling off her first win after running for the House multiple times. She’ll serve alongside Jim Qualey, who was reelected in the district. Mattson was not available for an interview.

“I am an average citizen who is tired of the elitist ... government that wants us average citizens to not be recognized as individuals, that are having our rights as U.S. citizens whittled away, our Constitution disregarded and our country overrun by those who disregard the law,” Mattson wrote on her website.

Mattson pledges to vote against any sales or income tax and says she hopes to further reduce taxes to cut regulations on small businesses. Her website also says she’s against vaccine mandates and will “fight against racism and discrimination in our schools.” She supports School Choice and aims to improve other issues in the state, such as clean air and water and the opioid epidemic.

Mary Murphy (Republican)

Mary Murphy thought she was retired. After her career took her in many different directions – she worked in the utilities industry, for IBM, at a nuclear plant and as a teacher – she started an organic farm in Francestown.

Then she said state Rep. Karen Reid chose not to run for reelection and asked her to seek office. Now, she’ll serve Francestown and Deering in the House.

“I felt I could help out with … prioritizing the budget and trying to find areas for efficiency, but also, not just focused on cutting, but trying to focus on new revenue sources for the state,” Murphy said.

Murphy said she’s a proponent of nuclear energy and building plants in New Hampshire to reuse nuclear fuel from the Seabrook plant. Squeezing more energy from that plant’s output, she said, could lower costs and give the state an edge.

“It’s my thought that we could not only build a plant like this here in New Hampshire, but … we could sell reactors or sell our expertise to other states,” Murphy said. “That could become one revenue stream.”

She also wants to recruit new businesses – especially those in Massachusetts – to relocate to New Hampshire. First, though, she said New Hampshire would need to find solutions for its high costs and limited housing supply to make it a more “attractive package.”

Murphy is on the board of trustees at Rivier University. She’s an advocate of the Second Amendment, parental rights and School Choice, according to her website, where she also lists priorities of lowering taxes and securing New Hampshire’s northern border.

John Suiter (Republican)

For John Suiter, a selectman in Mason, his reason for running was simple.

“I just wanted to help people,” he said. “Community service is what it’s about.”

As for how he’ll go about that, Suiter said he’s focused on lowering costs, particularly property taxes. Towns need to lower their local costs and tax burdens, he said. While picking up campaign signs after winning the election, he said he met a woman cleaning out her garage and preparing to move. Since her husband had died several years ago, she could no longer afford the property taxes on their “forever home,” Suiter said.

“That’s unacceptable, completely unacceptable, for any town to put any one of their people in that position,” Suiter said.

He’s focused on trimming the budget and eliminating unnecessary spending, as well as supporting veterans. Before becoming selectman, Suiter was a supervisor of the checklist for Mason and volunteered at the Fire Department. He’s a veteran and retired federal employee.

Suiter will replace the retiring John Lewicke and serve alongside fellow Republican Diane Pauer.

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