James Thibault

My name is James, and I’m a recent high school graduate from Winnisquam Regional High School and an incoming freshman at Saint Anselm College. I lived in Tilton for a good part of my life before moving to Franklin, where I now live, and my entire family has lived in Tilton, Northfield, and Franklin for my entire life. I currently serve as the chairman of the New Hampshire Legislative Youth Advisory Council (LYAC), a committee of the state legislature made up of high schoolers and college students that advises them on policy, and I’m a member of the Governor’s Youth Advisory Council on Substance Misuse and Prevention (GYAC). My service on LYAC and my past experiences drove me to find even more ways to get involved as much as I could, leading to me representing New Hampshire at the American Legion’s Boys Nation Program in 2023 and the United States Senate Youth Program (established by U.S. Senate Resolution 324) in 2024, each program only selecting two students per state to serve. These programs emphasized for me the importance of civic education for all students of all ages, something severely lacking in our schools. They also allowed me to advocate for and defend the values that make New Hampshire so great in a national setting: local control, low taxes, education freedom and parents’ rights, and gun rights, all of which I will defend just as vigorously in Concord.

• Every student has a right to an education that best suits his or her needs and passions and shouldn’t be trapped in a school that doesn’t meet those needs. In Concord, I’ll protect the Education Freedom Account Program and advocate for more ways for students to learn in the best ways for them, both in and outside the classroom.
• We often consider math, reading and writing, science, and history and civics to be the four core areas of study in a traditional education, but history and civics often get far more neglected than the rest. This has led to generations of students who are practically illiterate when it comes to our nation’s history, current events, and even geography. We need to promote more ways for young people to learn about and experience what it means to be an American and a Granite Stater.
• All parents have the right to direct the upbringing of their children, and as such, should have those rights clearly outlined in law so schools cannot violate them. Having recently graduated myself, I’ve seen just how much schools hide from parents and students alike. Our public schools need more transparency, more accountability, and more collaboration with parents to ensure a quality education for all students.

I'm passionate about education policy and maximizing students' and parents' rights in and out of the classroom In addition to this, I care deeply about protecting the things that make New Hampshire one of the best states to live in: constitutional carry, no sales or state income tax, and our focus on local control.

Like I said earlier, I greatly admire Senator Mike Lee. His knowledge and love of the Constitution are qualities I aspire to. However, I also look up to George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Abraham Lincoln, as they were all great statesmen who led our country through periods of great uncertainty—Washington through the aftermath of the Revolution, Jefferson with the drafting of the Declaration of Independence and later through the first major expansion of our nation, and Lincoln through the Civil War. I connect with Jefferson in particular because he also got involved in politics from quite a young age, drafting the Declaration at just 33, and being involved in Virginia even younger. While I'm certainly no Jefferson, knowing that there were young people who helped exert such influence on our nation, especially so early on, is quite inspiring.

I love Dante Alighieri's "The Divine Comedy." The 14th-century Italian epic really encapsulates what it means to be human: to be led astray from righteousness but guided to what's right by human reason (represented by Virgil), and then even further by faith when reason isn't enough. I believe that less and less politicians are driven by reason and common sense these days and that disconnects them from the will and interests of their constituents.

A sense of humility and deference towards their constituents. Elected officials are selected to represent the will of the people, not their own interests. They should be willing to listen to their constituents openly, be accessible to them, and know what issues they care most about. Ultimately, when it comes down to the vote, legislators should trust their best judgment, but those decisions should have the opinions of their constituents factored in as well.

Having lived in New Hampshire my whole life, I know not only the issues that matter most to my neighbors, but also how our system of governance works well enough to be an effective legislator in addressing those issues. A good public official should be ready and willing to listen to his or her constituents and help them address their concerns and navigate the government, and I'm excited to do just that. In addition, I recognize the importance of getting youth engaged with the government because I did it myself, so I want to be able to help all Granite State youth learn more about our government and become more active in it.

State representatives in New Hampshire don't have very large constituencies, and for that reason, they should know the communities they're representing. I've lived in this area of New Hampshire my whole life, and I know our struggles and strengths firsthand because I've lived through them. Representatives should commit themselves to understanding their communities and the people that live within them and legislating based on that.

I want to be able to say that my work has been able to help students achieve more than I could in school. More opportunities to learn, to engage, and to find what they're passionate about. Much of my educational career was spent fighting with my school's administration, and I want to ensure that no student has to experience that again and can instead focus on finding and pursuing their passions.

I remember my family being hit hard during the Great Recession in 2008 when I was 3. My dad had been laid off from his job and had to get a couple of part-time jobs to make ends meet, and sometimes my sister and I would go with him to work because my mom would also be working and we had nowhere else to be. Like a lot of families, we struggled around that time and it took several years for us to financially recover.

My first job was at Walmart for a year and a half. It taught me a lot about working with people and meeting their needs, while also being somewhat humbling because you don't get to be at the top of the totem pole and don't always get to do what you want. In customer service, as in politics, you need to respect everyone. Many politicians think they're above the people they represent, but they're not because the people can kick them out at any time. Public officials need to respect their constituents as well as their colleagues in government to be effective.

As I said earlier, probably Dante's "Divine Comedy," as it is such a beautiful expression of the struggles of life but also a reminder of the fact that we can always do better than before. Just as Dante made his way through Hell into Purgatory and later Heaven, so too can we navigate the difficulties of our lives with reason, dignity, and faith.

Captain Jean-Luc Picard from Star Trek: The Next Generation. He's a strong, well-rounded, and intelligent leader who cares deeply about his crew and is willing to listen to them to come to the right solutions for the problems at hand, but also isn't afraid to be firm and take action when needed.

"Vienna" by Billy Joel. It's a great song and it also serves as a poignant reminder that sometimes it's better to slow down and enjoy life rather than rushing through it.

As I said, my family often had to fight with my school for fair treatment. First, administrators tried to prevent my sisters from being moved to a charter school seven years ago, and then I fought the Board to repeal the mask mandate during COVID and I won. After that, I threatened to sue them when they tried to deprive me of the ability to organize a chapter of Young Americans for Freedom on campus and create a memorial display for 9/11, in violation of the First Amendment. After that, they tried to kick me out of the school, since I had moved from Tilton to Franklin, so I had to fight against their lawyers in arbitration to stay, and I won again. I never had a normal education because of this active opposition, but I never gave up and always worked to not only overcome it for myself but also advocate for reforms so that it never has to happen to more students in the future.

The office of the New Hampshire governor is very weak compared to other states. Most of his powers are checked by the Executive Council, with the primary exception of veto power, and this is an effective system. I'm not fond of the line-item veto of other states as that turns the governor into something of a legislator when he shouldn't be, so our system of only allowing him to sign or totally veto the bill allows the legislature to effectively do its job of representing the will of the people without it being malformed by the executive.

Education is a rising concern as more and more students flood out of public schools seeking new and more effective opportunities while more and more teachers retire or quit without anyone to replace them. We need to find ways to best support our students however we can with whatever choices they believe to be best for their education.
Meanwhile, our housing market continues to struggle, making it seem increasingly difficult for my generation to ever imagine being homeowners.

It can be beneficial, but it's good to have a mix of perspectives. There are plenty of legislators in New Hampshire who don't have political backgrounds and their insights from their jobs in the private sector can prove invaluable on many issues, which is why it's so great to have a citizen legislature. I have some political experience from the Legislative Youth Advisory Council and some of the other programs I've attended, but my perspective as a young person is still going to be much different than an incumbent of several terms or someone who's never been in politics, but all sides are important to coming up with different ideas for legislation.

Absolutely! You have to work with these people to get things passed, so whether it's co-sponsoring a bill or working on amendments to reach a compromise, it's so much better to build a positive relationship and work with them to achieve a common goal rather than bickering of going it alone and getting nothing done. Even if you disagree with someone on an issue today, it doesn't mean he or she couldn't be a useful ally on another issue tomorrow.

Senator Mike Lee of Utah. He's a man of conviction who isn't afraid to speak his mind, but he has action to back up his words. He isn't the type of person to just complain about something and do nothing, but he'll actually introduce well-crafted legislation to solve the problem. As he said himself, "I want to be one that is willing to do things that are not easy but that need to be done." He's also a fervent student of the Constitution and cares about it very deeply, and I strive to one day be as familiar with it as he is.

I'll think about that when I'm actually old enough to run for those offices. Public officials who constantly have their eyes set on the next higher office while running for a lower one do a disservice to their constituents because they're more focused on their own desire for power or status than they are for actually serving their constituents. It's not wrong to seek higher office, but when that's the only thing a person thinks about, more so than the needs of their constituents, that's an issue.

I've heard many stories from the parents of students with special needs that they have not received adequate services from their public schools for their children to learn properly. Some are even told that they're "incapable of learning," and that they'll be given a "Certificate of Completion" rather than a diploma. Then, if they try to exercise school choice to move their students to programs that will be better for them, the public schools will be as difficult as possible to prevent it from happening. I know because these very things happened to my own sisters. These sorts of actions violate parents' rights to direct the upbringing of their children and to find the best education for their children and more needs to be done to protect them.

Yes, our system of checks and balances exists for a reason. Unaccountable powers by any branch of the government should not be exercised.

When I attended the American Legion's Boys State program, a simulation of New Hampshire's government, I introduced a bill that I wrote to protect students' rights to free speech and free organization on high school campuses from the encroachment of bureaucratic school administrations trying to stifle expression. I have since touched up that bill and I would be incredibly humbled to introduce that bill to the legislature.

Rep. Valerie McDonnell of Salem
Rep. David Love of Derry
Merrimack County Commissioner David Lovlien II

As an 18-year-old who just graduated from high school and is now entering college, I believe that I am one of the best candidates to comment on the current state of our education system, so I would love to serve on House Education.

I believe this is one of the areas that New Hampshire really shines. RSA 91-A, our Right to Know law, makes it very easy to request government records, but it's also very easy to interact with our government in more direct ways. The fact that every bill introduced gets a public hearing for people to voice their opinions is incredible for accountability to the people, and the fact that all committee hearings are live-streamed on YouTube makes them even more accessible. However, we certainly need more transparency and accountability in our public schools to ensure that they best serve our students and parents.

New Hampshire's system of constitutional amendments passing through the legislature before being put to a vote of the people ensures that the language is polished and able to be added to the Constitution before presenting it to the voters if it's able to pass. Modifying the state Constitution is not something to take lightly, so the bar currently set ensures that only the most serious matters are added to it.