It's Farrington over Grassie in an upset; Kaczynski holds onto District 5 seat

Republican Sam Farrington, left, and Democrat Chuck Grasie (Courtesy photos)

ROCHESTER - The Rochester City Clerk's Office confirmed that the city had a record 80 percent turnout on Tuesday, leading to a few surprises, including the defeat of longtime District 8 state rep Chuck Grassie, D-Rochester, at the hands of Republican Sam Farrington, a pro life UNH student from Rochester.

Farrington won the Ward 4 vote 1,498-1,232.

Meanwhile, the city contest between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris was surprisingly close, with Trump winning a razor-thin win 8,882-8,264.

While New Hampshire didn't turn red like many Republicans had hoped, President Trump-elect got plenty of help from the blue wall, which crumbled in the wee hours of today, with Pennsylvania pushing him past the finish line.

As of mid-morning today Trump is also winning the popular vote, 71,289,216 to 66,360,224.

Locally, longtime District 5 state rep Tom Kaczynski, R-Rochester, edged out Democrat Patricia Turner 1,499 to 1,365.

Kaczynski said today he thought he had a good chance of winning, but when he saw the polls had crazy long lines, "I was wondering, I didn't know how to take it; there were so many people at the polls. There were a lot of new faces."

In the at-large District 19 rep race the three winners were Republicans David Walker and Kelly Potenza with 6,642 and 6,429 votes respectively and Democrat John Larochelle with 6,127.

The rest of the field that didn't make the cut included Democrat Daniel Fitzpatrick (6,040), Republican Jenny Wilson (5,971) and Democrat Melena Lugo (5,781).

And in District 6 Republican De-De-Poulin defeated Democrat Kathleen M. MacLeod, 1,482 to 1,358.

Many of the results from county races are still coming in from the various cities and towns, including the race for sheriff, and other county positions including the county commissioners, where County Commissioner George Maglaras was the only one running unopposed.

Meanwhile, at the state level, Republican Kelly Ayotte easily defeated Democrat Joyce Craig for the governorship, and Executive Councilor for district one Republican Joseph Kenney, R-Wakefield, is expected to keep his seat.

At the federal level N.H. Democrat Congressman Chris Pappas has defeated Republican Russell Prescott, while Democrat Maggie Goodlander is projected to win her District 2 race over the GOP's Lily Tang Williams.

This story will be updated.