Kiper won’t be on the ballot in November after failing to collect enough signatures

Jon Kiper, the independent candidate who had announced a bid for New Hampshire governor, failed to collect enough signatures to qualify for November’s gubernatorial election.

Kiper needed 3,000 voters’ signatures to get his name on the ballot. He said he collected only about 500. He blamed his failure to collect the signatures partly on the fact that he wasn’t willing “to spend 40 grand to pay people to do it for me.” He said he’s not currently considering contesting the matter or other avenues to get elected, such as a write-in campaign.

Republican Gov. Kelly Ayotte is seeking reelection and facing a challenge from Cinde Warmington, a former executive councilor and the presumptive Democratic nominee. Additionally, Shaun Fife, of Gilmanton, and Bob Wayne McClory, of Goffstown, filed to challenge Ayotte in the Republican primary.

Kiper said he struggled to get the support of the voter base he was targeting.

“I found people that I thought would be on our team,” he said, “particularly older, let’s say Bernie voters who were maybe boomers who tell me, ‘I’m not a Democrat.’ They’d say, ‘I’m frustrated. The Democratic Party doesn’t want us, blah blah blah.’ I thought those people would be behind us, and they just were not.”

He also said he didn’t want to be labeled a spoiler and blamed for any Democratic loss.

Kiper, who used to own a bar and restaurant in Newmarket, has run for governor before. In 2024, he ran as a Democrat, but lost to former Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig in the primary. He won 10% of the vote that year.

Kiper was attempting to create a new political party — the Community First party — in New Hampshire. He’s still pursuing that goal but believes it will take much longer now, perhaps a decade, he said. Now, he said he’s filing with the Secretary of State’s Office to create a political action committee called the Community First Coalition, which will seek to further those goals and help get like-minded candidates elected.

“The idea is to help working-class people similar to me to run for office by helping them with the infrastructure,” he said.

He said that not being on the ballot might be the best thing for the coalition’s future at this point.

“For the sake of the coalition, it would be better that we aren’t the spoilers,” he said. “I think Cinde’s going to lose and I think the Democrats are probably going to not see the blue wave that they are hoping to see because of Warmington. I think she’s going to tamp down success all the way down the ballot. Obviously, I don’t want the Democrats to lose. I think they’re going to lose, and when they do, and we aren’t the spoilers, I think we’ll be in a better position to recruit those people who are frustrated with the party and won’t see us as just like out there to spoil an election.”