Former Iowa Democratic chair Troy Price hired as New Hampshire Democrats’ executive director
By Veronica Stracqualursi, CNN
Troy Price, the former chair of the Iowa Democratic Party during the chaotic 2020 Iowa caucuses, is the New Hampshire Democratic Party’s new executive director, the party announced Friday.
Price’s hiring comes as New Hampshire, where first-term Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan is expected to face a tough reelection battle in 2022, could be pivotal to whether Democrats keep control of a split US Senate. Price will start in his new role Monday.
In a press release Friday, New Hampshire Democratic Party Chair Ray Buckley said the party is “building an all-star team of experienced leaders to ensure that we organize and mobilize voters in every corner of the state.”
Buckley added that with Price, along with other senior leaders, “we are building a strong grassroots-focused party that will effectively support local Democratic committees, help Democrats win during this fall’s municipal elections, and elect Democrats up and down the ballot in 2022.”
In 2020, Price resigned from his leadership role in Iowa after the caucuses devolved into chaos from faulty technology and arcane rules.
The reporting methods for Iowa’s nearly 1,700 precincts broke down, halting the emergence of a clear winner in the pivotal first-in-the-nation presidential contest and forcing a slow rollout of partial results.
The Iowa Democratic Party took days to release the full count of votes and later conducted a partial recanvass of the results, after multiple campaigns highlighted errors in those counts.
“As chair of this party, I am deeply sorry for what happened and bear the responsibility for any failures on behalf of the Iowa Democratic Party,” Price wrote in his letter of resignation amid the partial recanvass process.
An internal review in December found that the problems were mostly due to intervention by the Democratic National Committee, but also partly blamed the Iowa Democratic Party’s planning.
Buckley told local station WMUR, which first reported Price’s hiring, that “these issues were confined to the process in Iowa and have no relevance to the New Hampshire primary or New Hampshire elections.”
The New Hampshire Democratic Party said in its Friday news release that Price was unanimously selected by a search committee and confirmed by the party’s executive committee for the job. Price will succeed Ryan Mahoney, who had been serving temporarily in the role since April and was named the senior adviser for state races on Friday.
Price will work closely with Buckley to “build and expand the grassroots, create a successful election strategy, serve as chief of staff and the chief financial officer, and run the day to day operations of the state party,” the party said.
The party noted that that Price had “worked closely” with its leaders for many years on “a variety of issues.”
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CNN’s Dan Merica contributed to this report.
