The Chamber of the New Hampshire House of Representatives. Photo from Wikimedia Commons.

Home to the largest governing body among all U.S. state government(s), New Hampshire’s “Citizen Legislature” is divided into two branches: the New Hampshire House of Representatives, and the New Hampshire Senate, collectively known as the General Court of New Hampshire. The New Hampshire House of Representatives—the largest governing body of US state governments—consists of 400 members elected biennially from 204 legislative districts across the state. The New Hampshire Senate consists of twenty-four senators, also elected biennially, from twenty-four districts.

The General Court of New Hampshire is proclaimed as a “Citizen Legislature,” a body that aims to encompass the variety of occupations and experiences of its constituents. Although, by name, it would seem a “Citizen” legislature intends to capture the diversity and perspective of its electorate, current policies effectively prevent a truly representative group from convening in Concord.

One of these policies is the salary structure for New Hampshire legislators. In the state of New Hampshire, the salary for a member of either the House or Senate is $200 per two-year term. This pay structure was established in 1784, and members have yet to receive a raise 237 years since.

According to a 2011 National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) article, salaries for state legislators should be high enough to ensure the legislature is qualified, diverse, and open to candidates regardless of their economic status. $100 per year does not come anywhere close to meeting this standard. And the consequences of this failure are clear. According to a 2015 report from Stateline and NCSL, the average age for a New Hampshire State legislator was 66—the highest in the country—while the average age in the state was 48. Data from the report also reveals that although millennials made up approximately 26% of New Hampshire’s 2015 population, they comprised only 1% of the state legislature.

New Hampshire’s particular circumstances do not exist nationwide. The state of Michigan, for example, offers a stark contrast. The previously referenced Stateline/NCSL report reveals that Michigan had the lowest median age of state legislators in the country at 50, and Michigan's representation of millennials in the state legislature compared to the state population was over eight times greater than in New Hampshire. But the most overwhelming difference between the two states is not in legislature composition, but legislator compensation. In 2019, Michigan paid its legislators a base salary of $71,685 per year—over 700 times that of New Hampshire legislators.

To discuss some of the implications of these disparities, I sat down with Representative Tony Labranche: New Hampshire’s youngest state legislator and a member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives from the 22nd district of Hillsborough County.

The following transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.

Could you give a little bit of background as to who you are, where you come from, and why you decided to run? What were the core issues central to you and your campaign?

I actually have a question to you first,––do you want the long-winded “who is Tony Labranche?” answer, or do you want the shorter version?

Let’s go with the long-winded answer, I’d love to hear it!

I have been interested in politics since the age of ten.

That started when I was diagnosed with stage three colon cancer, so I had to navigate the American healthcare system at a young age. Thank the lord that I had good health insurance—my father is a union member—so we were guaranteed to have really good healthcare. But I know not everybody has that opportunity. We were getting hospital bills for $100,000—good thing the insurance was covering it—but we still paid thousands of dollars out-of-pocket.

Having cancer at age ten, that’s already hard to begin with. But then, on top of that having to deal with the for-profit American healthcare system was just another layer of burden that I don’t think anybody should be going through when they’re already going through a life-or-death situation. In going through the itemized hospital bills, I found that Massachusetts General Hospital charged us $40 for a single pill of Tylenol. That means they made over $1200 just on Tylenol during my stay, when I could buy a bottle of two hundred across the street. That’s the moment I realized that the American Healthcare system is pretty corrupt, and it was a slap in the face knowing that, as a kid going through chemotherapy, that somebody was actively profiting from my suffering. That’s when my political engagement began.

Then, high school comes around—I’m gonna skip the Bernie Sanders influence. We had a student-run democracy, but then we got a new superintendent and new school board and they started making changes that I didn’t agree with. They were completely ignoring students and teachers when we were bringing up the fact that the school needed maintenance. There were holes and leaks in the ceiling, there were chairs and desks falling apart, and there was no heating in a lot of the classrooms during winter. So I ran for school board my senior year of high school. I lost the election by 200 votes—I didn’t come in last place, surprisingly. On the campaign trail for the school board election, I realized that education funding is not just an issue for my town. It’s a statewide issue, leading to very big discrepancies between school districts, like the Claremont School District not even able to have basic biology last year, and the Lakes Region with some of the lowest property tax rates but the best schools in the state. That was another one of the big reasons I ran for state representative.

Another of my biggest passions is electoral reform: ranked-choice voting, proportional representation, and the final thing was actually state legislature pay. I was learning about state legislature pay in my senior year civics class and, me being the person I am, thought “doesn’t that just discriminate against working class people and young people? That only leads to the retired and the rich being able to represent people.” Which is why this year we see the average age of the state house is 65, I believe. So that was a big reason why I ran for state representative.

[Specific data is not publicly available for New Hampshire’s 2021-2022 Legislature to substantiate this claim, but 65 is relatively consistent with data from the 2015 Stateline/NCSL report previously referenced.]

Given that the current pay structure for state legislators is $200 per 2-year term, how did the prospect of receiving this amount of compensation influence your decision to run? Were you concerned about receiving this payment in exchange for your service to New Hampshire?

I would say that the pay is insulting, and it is a big reason why I ran. I believe I ran in spite of it, because I think it is so wrong that we blatantly discriminate against working class people. If you’re working a full-time job, if you’re a college student, you really can’t serve. It skews the representation in Concord.

The New Hampshire State House, which houses both chambers of the legislature. Photo from Wikimedia Commons.

It’s sad that I have to live with my parents in order to be a state representative, because we are paid that little. I don’t think any state legislature should have any of its members say that, but that’s the sad reality in New Hampshire. I have to live with my mom, I have to work a part-time job, and one of my goals is to finally eliminate that from the state constitution, or at least amend that.

Has this compensation at all discouraged you from running again next election cycle?

I will say that how low the pay is is definitely a point of contention in my household because of course my mom wants me to be actually earning a liveable wage—which we don’t have in New Hampshire to begin with—but that’s a separate discussion.

I believe I was able to convince her that I’m fighting the good fight so that people don’t have to make the same sacrifices I’m making. But it’s inherently flawed if you have to be making those types of sacrifices.

Representative Tony Labranche is a nineteen-year-old member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives from the 22nd District of Hillsborough County. In addition to his unique perspective as a young person serving in a legislative body with one of the highest average member ages in the United States, I remember being struck by Representative Labranche’s particular passion for electoral politics and reform during his 2020 campaign. I encourage all CPR readers to read more about him and his vision on his campaign website.

Colby Malcolm is a Staff Writer for CPR and a first-year student in Columbia College. Outside of CPR, you can find him consuming copious amounts of caffeine, scrolling endlessly through TikTok, or curating another playlist on Spotify.

New Hampshire’s ‘Citizen’ Legislature Doesn’t Represent Its Citizens: A Conversation with the Youngest Member of the New Hampshire General Court, Representative Tony Labranche