Note: The leadership team of the Oyster River Democrats does not endorse candidates in contested Democratic primaries. Our role is to give voters the chance to meet the candidates, ask them questions, and access their campaign literature, not to choose among them. We host candidate events and share information so that voters can make their own informed choice heading into the primary. Unfortunately, schedules didn’t work out with all primary candidates to attend one of our monthly meetings before the election this year.
July 14, 2026 Meeting of the Oyster River Democrats
We heard from three candidates at this meeting:
Candidate on the Democratic Primary ballot for Congressional District 1 in the election to succeed Chris Pappas:
CARLEIGH BERIONT is the Chair of the Hampton Select Board and a public policy educator. She opened with a story from a recent select board meeting where the town had to decide whether to place a lien on a retiree’s home over unpaid property taxes , using it to illustrate how rising costs are squeezing families across the district. She’s driven 26,000 miles across the district over the past year, building her campaign around listening to what keeps voters up at night. Her top priority is breaking up corporate consolidation in healthcare, and she supports Medicare for All while backing any legislation that expands access in the meantime, along with expanding Medicare to cover vision, dental, and hearing. Other priorities include full federal special-education funding (currently ~7% against a promised 40%), lifting the Social Security payroll tax cap, raising the minimum wage to $15, enforceable ethics rules and a stock-trading ban for Congress and the Court, and stronger AI regulation given the industry’s water and energy demands amid New Hampshire’s recent droughts.
Candidate on the Democratic Primary ballot for Congressional District 1 in the election to succeed Chris Pappas:
CHRISTIAN URRUTIA is a human rights and international law attorney and an Army National Guard officer who also defends service members through the military’s Trial Defense Services. He grew up in Hudson as the son of immigrants from Mexico and Spain and went on to serve as Special Counsel in the Pentagon under the Biden administration, working on issues like closing Guantánamo. He was candid that the Democratic Party hasn’t been meeting the moment and needs to fight harder. He explicitly supports impeachment of the president and, like Carleigh, backs Medicare for All, calling healthcare a national emergency. He’d close the loophole that lets billionaires avoid income tax by borrowing against stock holdings, ban members of Congress from trading stocks, and push for a special prosecutor on the Epstein files. On the courts, he supports an enforceable ethics code and said impeachment should be on the table for Justices Kavanaugh and Thomas. On foreign policy, he’d cut defense spending and rein in the military-industrial complex, opposes arming Israel’s military while continuing defensive support for Ukraine, and called for dismantling ICE and moving immigration enforcement under the DOJ.
The Democratic Party candidate for Executive Council, District 1 (Note: this district includes Durham and Madbury, but not Lee):
DR. LUZ BAY is a state rep from Dover, gave a brief preview of her Executive Council campaign. She introduced the “CARS” framework (Contracts, Appointments, Roads, Services) that she’d unpack in full the following month, and noted that nearly everything in state government routes through the Council. She described New Hampshire as having a “barely governorship,” since the governor can only sign or veto bills without Council approval. She also pointed out the district’s enormous geographic reach, stretching from Durham all the way up to the Canadian border.
