CONCORD, N.H. – On Monday, the New Hampshire House of Representatives Legislative Administration Committee held a hearing to address complaints against comments made by State Representative Travis Corcoran, R-Weare.
In recent weeks, Corcoran replied to a mass invitation for a social event from State Representative Jess Grill, D-Manchester, by stating there needed to be a “final solution” for “theater kids.”
The term final solution is generally conferred as synonymous with the Holocaust during World War II, when the Nazis murdered six million Jews and other peoples they considered to be undesirable.
New Hampshire House of Representatives Minority Leader Alexis Simpson, D-Exeter, brought the matter to New Hampshire House of Representatives Speaker Sherman Packard, R-Londonderry, also citing comments made earlier in the year asking federal officials on social media to deport State Representative and naturalized U.S. Citizen Luz Bay, D-Dover, following a speech she made on the House floor.
Simpson noted that these comments are part of a pattern of incendiary comments on the social media platform X that are directed at members of a specific class, gender, religion, race or other particular identification and that Corcoran identifies himself as a state representative on that platform.
“Public discourse, especially from elected officials, must meet a higher standard. Our institution cannot afford inaction. I asked you to decide that this behavior violates our commitment to treat our fellow legislators and members of the public with dignity and respect, and to affirm that rhetoric, invoking genocide, hatred, or discrimination has no place in our public square,” she said. “Failure to act here risks normalizing conduct that undermines our institution, erodes public trust, and invites further degradation of our norms.”
Grill explained that the invitation was for a group known as the “karaoke caucus,” a group including Republicans, Democrats and non-politicians who began to join together for social purposes at the Eagle Square-based Tandy’s Bar and Grill to participate in their karaoke night after long legislative sessions.
As a Jewish lawmaker, Grill was disturbed by the words used by Corcoran, and believed that his words were intentional given his knowledge of history. She was also shocked that such language would come from something as seemingly benign as an invitation to a social event and further attacked Corcoran for not meeting with an advisory group led by Speaker Packard to address the issue or explain his words until the day of the hearing. Grill felt that anything less than expulsion from the House of Representatives would not curb Corcoran’s behavior.
“Serving in this house is a privilege. The legislative ethics guidelines require members to treat each other in the public with dignity and respect. That is not an impossibly high standard. It’s a basic level of professionalism that most of us can meet every day. Yet, Representative Corcoran has shown repeatedly that he either cannot or will not meet that standard,” said Grill.
Corcoran called the comment a “sarcastic jab” at performative politics that value spectacle over substance and that he would have chosen other words if he knew Grill was Jewish.
He also felt that the hearing itself was a form of performative politics and deliberately taken in the most sinister interpretation possible for political gain.
If this body wants to set the precedent that members can be hauled before a committee, whenever someone decides to be offended by a joke made outside of the chamber, then what is being protected here is not decorum, it is political theater as a disciplinary weapon,” said Corcoran. “That was my point then, and that is my point now. This proceeding proves it.”
After Corcoran, Simpson and Grill, 35 other people testified in person before the committee in a stream that included sitting and former State Representatives from both the Democratic and Republican Parties, some of which were also Jewish and most of which requested some form of disciplinary action against Corcoran.
One of them was State Representative Jodi Newell, D-Keene, who read a letter from her colleague Loren Foxx, D-Bedford, as Foxx was unable to attend the hearing. Foxx felt that it would be acceptable for the House to move on from Corcoran’s comment if he showed some sign of remorse instead of appearing to be proud of his comments.
“As state representatives, we are all colleagues in this workplace, and a bullying, antisemitic social media post (like Corcoran’s) would get you fired from a job in a typical corporate environment,” said Foxx in the letter. “I see no reason why this workplace should be any different. As a two-term sitting representative, I condemn representative Corcoran’s comments in the strongest manner possible. I applaud the representatives on both sides of the aisle who are here today to defend a state representative who merely wanted to gather people for an evening of fun and was dragged into a morass, not of her own making.”
There were various faith leaders who also spoke against Corcoran’s comments along with others who shared Corcoran’s history of abusive behavior.
Weare representative Nancy Brennan, a constituent of Corcoran, said that he took an unredacted e-mail and took it out of context on social media, leading to what she saw as abusive comments at her expense.
Brennan said that she has talked to other Republican state representatives in Weare, but Corcoran is the only one that engages in this behavior.
“People in my town don’t dare talk to him unless they are conservatives,” she said. “This is not representation.”
Others testifying told members of the committee that inaction would be tantamount to permission for others to engage in comparable behavior, such as Anthony Poore of Manchester, and Arya Shams, of Nashua.
Poore said that Corcoran referred to his non-profit group as “the enemy” and that his group and others needed to be “harmed,” leading to Poore needing to invest thousands of dollars in greater security. Shams said that many of his neighbors have been harmed by comments like those made by Corcoran and that Corcoran does not have the courage to say these comments offline and inaction would invite violence.
“If you do not hold this member accountable, you are telling every resident of this state that their dignity is a secondary concern to a troll’s performance,” said Shams. “I would tell him if he had the spine to stick around in this room. That (computer) screen is gone, Travis. We see the blueprint you’re following. And we are standing in your way.”
Only one person, State Representative Matt Drew, R-Manchester, spoke in support of Corcoran and that protecting free speech rights requires protecting speech that others may not agree with. Drew also noted an incident in 2017 regarding former State Representative Sherry Frost, D-Dover, where no action was taken and felt that conservatives are targeted regardless of their behavior.
“When you become a Republican in New Hampshire, it means you sign up for being called hateful, misogynist, homophobic, racist, and all kinds of other names,” he said. “It happens constantly.”
Committee Chair Gregory Hill, R-Northfield, did not indicate a specific date when the committee would enter executive session to deliberate and vote on a recommendation for the full house, which could include reprimand, censure, expulsion, or no action at all. However, Hill did expect that executive session to be occurring “in a week or so.”