Kelly Ayotte

Kelly Ann Ayotte (born June 27, 1968) is an American attorney and politician who served as a United States senator from New Hampshire from 2011 to 2017.

Ayotte was born in Nashua, New Hampshire, on June 27, 1968, the daughter of Kathleen M. (née Sullivan) and Marc Frederick Ayotte.

Her father's family is of French–Canadian descent.

Ayotte attended Nashua High School and received a B.A. from Pennsylvania State University in political science.

While at Penn State, she was initiated into the Delta Gamma sorority.

In 1993, Ayotte received a J.D. from Villanova University School of Law, where she had served as editor of the Environmental Law Journal.

Ayotte clerked for Sherman D. Horton, associate justice of the New Hampshire Supreme Court, for one year.

From 1994 to 1998, she was an associate at McLane, Graf, Raulerson & Middleton, a Manchester law firm.

In 1998, Ayotte joined the office of the New Hampshire Attorney General as a prosecutor.

In 2001, she married Joseph Daley, a pilot in the National Guard.

As assistant attorney general, Ayotte prosecuted two defendants for the 2001 Dartmouth College murders in Etna, New Hampshire.

In 2003, Ayotte became legal counsel to Governor Craig Benson.

Three months later, she returned to the Attorney General's office as Deputy Attorney General.

In 2003, the United States District Court for the District of New Hampshire found the Parental Notification Prior to Abortion Act, a New Hampshire law requiring parental notification of a minor's abortion, unconstitutional, and enjoined its enforcement.

A member of the Republican Party, Ayotte served as New Hampshire Attorney General from 2004 to 2009.

Born in Nashua, New Hampshire, Ayotte is a graduate of Nashua High School, Pennsylvania State University and Villanova University School of Law.

She worked as a law clerk for the New Hampshire Supreme Court before entering private practice.

She served as a prosecutor for the New Hampshire Department of Justice, and briefly served as the legal counsel to New Hampshire Governor Craig Benson, before returning to the Department of Justice to serve as Deputy Attorney General of New Hampshire.

In 2004, Governor Benson appointed Ayotte as Attorney General of New Hampshire following the resignation of Peter Heed.

She became the first and only woman to serve as New Hampshire's Attorney General.

She was twice reappointed by Democratic governor John Lynch.

In June 2004, Governor Benson appointed Ayotte as Attorney General of the State of New Hampshire after Peter Heed resigned.

Ayotte had both of her children while serving as the first and only female New Hampshire Attorney General.

Ayotte joined Attorneys General from eight other states to sue federal regulators over a rules change that made clean air emissions standards for power plants less strict and eliminated clean air reporting and monitoring requirements.

In 2004, New Hampshire Attorney General Peter Heed appealed the ruling to the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, which affirmed the district court's ruling.

In 2004, Ayotte appealed the First Circuit's ruling to the Supreme Court, over the objection of incoming Democratic Governor John Lynch.

Ayotte personally argued the case before the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court unanimously vacated the district court's ruling and remanded the case back to the district court, holding that it was improper for the district court to invalidate the statute completely instead of just severing the problematic portions of the statute or enjoining the statute's unconstitutional applications.

In 2005, the court agreed with Ayotte and the others that the Environmental Protection Agency must measure changes in the emissions from power plants and could not exempt power plants from reporting their emissions.

As attorney general, Ayotte prosecuted the high-profile case surrounding the 2006 murder of Manchester police officer Michael Briggs in the line of duty.

It resulted in a conviction and death penalty sentence.

In 2007, the law was repealed by the New Hampshire legislature, mooting the need for a rehearing by the district court.

Ayotte resigned from her position as Attorney General in 2009 pursue a bid for the U.S. Senate, after three-term incumbent Judd Gregg announced his retirement from the Senate.

In September 2010, Ayotte won a close victory over lawyer Ovide M. Lamontagne in the Republican primary for the U.S. Senate.

She then defeated Democratic congressman Paul Hodes in the general election with 60 percent of the vote.

Members of Briggs's family praised her leadership in television ads for her 2010 Senate campaign.

Ayotte was mentioned as a possible running mate for Republican nominee Mitt Romney in the 2012 presidential election.

In 2016, Ayotte was defeated in her bid for reelection by Democratic Governor Maggie Hassan by a very narrow margin of 1,017 votes (0.14 percent).

After President Trump nominated Judge Neil Gorsuch to the United States Supreme Court, the administration chose Ayotte to lead the White House team escorting the nominee to meetings and hearings on Capitol Hill.

She is a candidate for New Hampshire's 2024 gubernatorial election.