John Lynch

Lynch was the first Challenger to defeat a first-term incumbent in New Hampshire since 1926.

John Hayden Lynch (born November 25, 1952) is an American attorney, businessman, and politician who served as the 80th governor of New Hampshire from 2005 to 2013.

Lynch earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of New Hampshire in 1974, a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School, and a Juris Doctor from Georgetown University Law Center.

During his business career, Lynch served as Director of Admissions at Harvard Business School and President of The Lynch Group, a business consulting firm in Manchester, New Hampshire.

Lynch served as CEO of Knoll Inc., a national furniture manufacturer, where he transformed the company previously losing $50 million a year, to making a profits of nearly $240 million yearly.

Under his leadership, Knoll created new jobs, gave factory workers annual bonuses, established a scholarship program for the children of employees, created retirement plans for employees who didn't have any, and gave workers stock in the company.

Before announcing his run for governor, Lynch was serving as chairman of the University System of New Hampshire Board of Trustees.

Lynch was first elected governor in 2004, defeating first-term Republican incumbent Craig Benson – the first time a first-term incumbent New Hampshire governor was defeated for re-election in 80 years.

In June 2004, Lynch launched his campaign for Governor of New Hampshire.

Lynch spent the five months preceding the election relentlessly criticizing Governor Craig Benson, the first-term Republican incumbent, for what Lynch claimed was a lack of integrity following a long series of scandals during Benson's tenure.

Lynch accused Benson of creating a "culture of corruption" and cronyism at the State House.

On September 15, Lynch won the Democratic primary and on November 2, Lynch defeated Benson 51% to 49%.

On January 6, 2005, Lynch was inaugurated as the 80th Governor of New Hampshire.

Lynch won re-election in landslide victories in 2006 and 2008, and comfortably won a fourth term in 2010.

Lynch is the most popular governor in New Hampshire history and, while in office, consistently ranked among the nation's most popular governors.

On November 7, 2006, Lynch was re-elected governor in a 74% to 26% landslide victory over Republican Challenger Jim Coburn.

Lynch's 74% of the vote was the largest margin of victory ever in a New Hampshire gubernatorial race.

Lynch's coattails carried his party to control of both chambers of the State Legislature and both of New Hampshire's two U.S. House seats.

In 2007, Lynch signed into law the Research and Development Tax credit, which for the following five years appropriated $1,000,000 for companies to write off qualifying "manufacturing research and development" expenditures.

On November 4, 2008, he was elected to a third term in another landslide victory.

Lynch defeated Republican Challenger Joseph Kenney, a New Hampshire state senator and U.S. Marine, 70% to 28%, with 2% of the vote won by the Libertarian candidate.

Democrats maintained control of the state legislature and held both U.S. House seats, and gained a U.S. Senate seat.

New Hampshire was rated the "Safest State" in the Nation in 2008 and 2009.

New Hampshire again boasts the nation's lowest murder rate and the second-lowest rates for aggravated assault, according to CQ Press.

On November 2, 2010, Lynch was elected to a historic fourth term as Governor of New Hampshire, in a victory over former State Health and Human Service's Commissioner John Stephen, 53% to 45%.

Lynch was the only Democrat elected to statewide office.

As had happened in many states throughout the U.S. during the 2010 midterm elections, Democrats suffered heavy losses.

Democrats lost control of both chambers of the State Legislature, control of the Executive Council and both of the U.S. House seats.

In June 2010, Lynch signed a budget-balancing measure that repealed the state's LLC tax.

Lynch worked with the state Attorney General, police chiefs, and lawmakers to pass sex offender laws; increase the state police force; and increase the number of state prosecutors.

According to the Concord Monitor, when Lynch was inaugurated on January 6, 2011, he became "the state's longest-serving governor in nearly two centuries. John Taylor Gilman was the last governor to serve longer than six years, serving 14 one-year terms as governor between 1794 and 1816. (The state switched to two-year terms in 1877)" New Hampshire and neighboring Vermont are the only two States in the U.S. that use two-year terms.

On September 15, 2011, Lynch announced he would not seek a historic fifth term as governor.

During the announcement Lynch said "I feel like I have the passion and the energy to keep doing this work for a long, long time, but democracy demands periodic change. To refresh and revive itself, democracy needs new leaders and new ideas."

In 2012, during his final State of the State address, Lynch proposed doubling the tax credit, citing its success in creating jobs, and slammed lawmakers for slashing funding to the state's community college system to fund a 10-cent reduction in the tobacco tax.

Since 2013, Lynch has served as a Senior Lecturer in the MBA program at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College.

Lynch was born in Waltham, Massachusetts, the fifth of William and Margaret Lynch's six children.

On January 3, 2013, Lynch was succeeded by fellow Democrat Maggie Hassan, marking the first time a Democrat succeeded a Democrat as the state's governor since the 19th century.

As a candidate for governor, Lynch took "The Pledge" not to enact any broad-based taxes, especially a sales or income tax.

As governor, Lynch kept his promise.

Lynch does not support an amendment to the State Constitution banning an income tax.