MANCHESTER, N.H. – Former Pentagon special counsel and New Hampshire Army National Guard Judge Advocate Christian Urrutia announced his campaign for the Democratic nomination in New Hampshire’s First Congressional District on Tuesday morning in an event at Arms Park.
Just across the river from Catholic Medical Center, where his mother worked for 25 years, Urrutia he could think of no better place to launch his campaign given the importance of the Queen City to his life as well as its significance within the First Congressional District.
“I think Manchester is the heart of New Hampshire,” he said. “Any candidate wanting to run in CD1 should make Manchester the top of their list, it’s certainly the top of my list.”
A first-time candidate, Urrutia wants to stake his campaign around the issue of making life more affordable for Granite Staters. Whether addressing factors related to housing or ensuring universal healthcare coverage or raising the minimum wage to a living wage, Urrutia wants to drive the point home about the importance of how all these issues are attached to affordability and how that subject needs to be a bigger focus in Washington.
“We have to be laser-focused on affordability in this country. I think we have a crisis of affordability. People who are working one job, two jobs, spouses each have a job, are barely able to keep their head afloat. I think for a long time, we haven’t given that enough attention,” he said.
While its unclear if Democrats will be able to regain the House majority in the next term, Urrutia believes that Democrats need to fight harder against many Republican initiatives, such as the recent “Big Beautiful Bill” currently before Congress while also looking for situations where middle ground can be found.
“We’re not simultaneously not fighting hard enough on the issues where we need to take a bold stand like on (the Big Beautiful Bill), yet there are some areas where we can create coalitions to tackle problems,” he said.
Although Urrutia does not have opinions about other candidates in the race, it’s his hope that both Democrats and Republicans will be more pro-active in talking to voters face-to-face about their concerns.
“I think people want fresh ideas, I think people want candidates who understand what’s happening out in the world and obviously have seen things first hand and I certainly have in the military and at the Department of Defense or as a lawyer or growing up here in New Hampshire,” he said.