HANOVER — As Election Day rapidly approaches and polls indicate the New Hampshire gubernatorial race remains close, Democratic candidate Joyce Craig emphasized several of her main issues — the housing crisis, education funding, climate change and reproductive rights — during a campaign stop in Hanover over the weekend.

Craig gave a short address to about 20 Dartmouth students outside of Rockefeller Center on Sunday afternoon. “I feel like I’m looking at the future,” said Craig, 57, at an event hosted by Dartmouth Democrats, a student organization.

The most recent poll, conducted Oct. 1 and 2 by Saint Anselm College Survey Center based in Manchester, has Republican candidate Kelly Ayotte ahead of Craig 47%-44% with a margin of sampling error of +/- 2.1%.

“It is tight and I know what it takes to win tough elections,” Craig said in an interview with the Valley News.

Craig was the mayor of Manchester from 2018-2024. Before that, she served on Manchester’s city council for six years and the Manchester Board of School Committee.

Ayotte, 56, was New Hampshire’s Attorney General from 2004 to 2009 and served in the U.S. Senate from 2011 to 2017.

To help alleviate the housing shortage, which is acute in the Upper Valley as well as the rest of the state, Craig said she would provide state technical assistance for communities to address their zoning ordinances and state funding for sewer and water infrastructure.

Communities “won’t put the cost of building water and sewer on the backs of their local taxpayers because it’s too much,” she said. “The state can invest in that infrastructure so local communities can build.”

Craig expressed her opposition to Education Freedom Accounts, a program launched in 2021 that allows for New Hampshire families to use state money to send their children to “select educational programming of their choice” instead of their local public school. EFAs diverted $24 million in state funding out of public schools in the 2023-2024 school year, according to the New Hampshire Department of Education.

If elected, Craig plans to call for New Hampshire Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut’s resignation. She does not have a person in mind to replace Edelblut, but intends to “appoint someone who understands and appreciates public education and has experience in public schools.”

Edelblut did not have a career in education before assuming his current position in 2017. He was an accountant and a business owner before serving one term in the state legislature.

Most of the students in attendance supported Craig and canvassed for her after the gathering despite the cold drizzle.

“I know how important it is to support Democrats,” said Dartmouth first-year student Maya Hay of Austin, Texas.

In referring to her own state, Hay said she feels the direct impact of conservative policies she opposes including limited reproductive rights.

“I wouldn’t want anyone to feel how I do in Texas,” she said.

Currently, abortion is banned after 24 weeks in New Hampshire with exceptions if the life of the pregnant person is in danger or there is a fetal fetus anomaly.

Craig vows to codify abortion rights into law and expand access to reproductive care funding if elected.

“I trust women to make their own health care decisions and I will fight to make sure it stays that way,” she said in her speech.

During the campaign Ayotte has said she will not change New Hampshire’s current abortion laws, if elected.

Sunday was not the first time Declan Schilling had canvassed in New Hampshire. The first-year from Bangor, Maine said the response from voters in Hanover has been positive.

“In an area like this, it’s about increasing (voter) turnout.”

Hanover leans overwhelmingly Democratic, with Democrats holding all three current House seats and its one Senate seat. In the 2020 Presidential, election, Joe Biden won 88.1% of the Hanover vote, 6,210-841 over Donald Trump.

However, not everyone at the event supported Craig.

Dartmouth senior Chris Hall said he generally leans more conservative but is “open to hearing the other side.”

He came to the event to hear what Craig had to say since he hasn’t decided who to vote for for governor yet.

Hanover Democratic state Reps. Russell Muirhead and Mary Hakken-Phillips — both currently running for re-election unopposed — kicked off the event with speeches.

“You guys are the energy we need,” Hakken-Phillips said to the students, “the momentum you are building is what carries Democrats to the finish line on November 5th.”

Craig said she came to Dartmouth to thank the students who have been engaged in campaigning.

“It really means a lot, they make a difference and the things that we’re fighting for are to ensure that we can keep young people in our state,” she said.

Emma Roth-Wells can be reached at erothwells@vnews.com or 603-727-3242.