In 2016, Kelly Ayotte was a rising star in the Republican Party. As of 2017, she is a former senator.
Now, the New Hampshire Republican is looking to return to a different political world than the one she left, as she prepares a bid to become the Republican nominee for governor of her state. One of the biggest differences between then and now: her stance towards Donald Trump.
And although Ayotte spent the last seven years out of office, she remained connected in political and political spheres before her next opportunity — raising millions on corporate boards, writing about state and national issues in newspapers and, early in the Trump administration, advise one of his Supreme Court picks during the Senate confirmation process.
In 2016, Ayotte was nearing the end of his first term in the Senate, establishing himself as a key Republican Party voice on national security alongside Trump’s unexpected political rise.
Like many Republicans at the time, Ayotte initially supported Trump, but later withdrew its support just weeks before Election Day in 2016, after Trump’s “Access Hollywood” video emerged in which he talked about touching women without their consent.
“I cannot and will not support a presidential candidate who brags about degrading and assaulting women,” Ayotte said at the time. She narrowly lost her re-election bid to now-Sen. Maggie Hassan, a Democrat, as Trump also narrowly lost the state.
Now, Ayotte is back on the national political scene, running for governor. And she supported Trump, offering a full rebuke from President Joe Biden. His Republican primary opponent, Chuck Morse, has endorsed the former president early in the 2024 race as both seek to succeed in retiring Republican Gov. Chris Sununu.
Asked if Ayotte always planned to run for governor in the future when she was still in the Senate, a former aide told NBC News: “She was very committed to the citizens of the Granite State during her time as senator, and I think it’s a succession It was natural for her to choose to run for governor.”
The path from then to now
After the end of his Senate term, Ayotte remained briefly in Washington, serving as advisor to then-Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch during her Senate confirmation process before she returned to New Hampshire.
But in the years between leaving the Senate and running for governor, Ayotte spent his time in the private sector and earned more than $2.1 million in cash fees serving on corporate boards between 2017 and 2023, according to a study . NBC News’ review of corporate proxy statements. The number does not include any shares she received while serving on corporate boards, which could also total millions, and only includes reported data from public companies on whose boards Ayotte served, such as Blackstone, Bloom Energy, Boston Properties, News Corp. and Caterpillar, not private companies where she also served on boards, such as Blink Health It is Citronics.
At different times in 2023, Ayotte possessed more than 16,000 shares of Blackstone shares and more than 7,000 shares of Boston Properties shares, according to Securities and Exchange Commission filings. In January 2024, she also reported own more than 50,000 shares of News Corp shares.
Ayotte has also served as a consultant for several other companies, including Chubb Insurance, Microsoft and Revision Military.
It is not at all uncommon for former politicians to join company boards after leaving office.
According to a study published by researchers at Harvard and Boston universities titled “Capital Gains: The Returns to Elected Offices from Corporate Board Positions,” nearly half of all former senators and governors serve on at least one board after leaving office .
The study also estimated that “winning an election to the Senate or governor increases the likelihood of later serving on a corporate board by about 30%.”
“There is actually a causal relationship between winning elections and getting these board seats,” Maxwell Palmer, associate professor of political science at Boston University and co-author of the paper, told NBC News.
In a statement, Ayotte told NBC News: “After leaving the Senate, I had two important priorities: first, to be more present with my husband and two children, as I could not be due to the Senate schedule, and second, to put my life experience to work helping New Hampshire and American businesses grow, compete and succeed.”
She added: “Over this time, I have gained a lot of experience working with companies at the highest level. This, in addition to my many years of public service as a prosecutor and attorney general, rounds out my skill set and has prepared me to lead our state and ensure New Hampshire remains safe, prosperous and free.”
In addition to serving on boards of directors in the six years between the end of his Senate term and the launch of his gubernatorial campaign, Ayotte also continued to contribute to political debates.
As a member of the Afghanistan Study Group, based on an area of interest to her as a senator, she co-authored a report in 2021 urging the Biden administration to delay the deadline for the necessary withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan.
She was also an author a letter to the editor in The Washington Post in 2019 about the Republican Party’s plans to combat climate change.
In the letter, Ayotte criticized a recent article that she said “failed to take into account several examples of recent Republican leadership in advancing clean energy solutions. As a former senator and strong public advocate with a track record of advancing policy in the clean energy space, I feel compelled to set the record straight and give credit where credit is due.”
When she wrote the letter, Ayotte was also serving as a consultant for Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions, a center-right nonprofit that aims to pressure Republican politicians to advocate for clean energy solutions.
She also amplified more local issues in the press.
In 2021, Ayotte also wrote an opinion article in the New Hampshire union leader criticizing Nashua Mayor Jim Donchess for trying to “strip away the [police] department of…independent oversight and control.”
At the time, the Nashua Police Commission was the last in the state whose commissioners were still appointed by the governor rather than locally.
Ayotte’s allies are quick to point out that despite her service on corporate boards and in various political roles since leaving the Senate, she has also sought to return to her New Hampshire community in more middle-of-the-road ways.
A person who worked with Ayotte told NBC News: “Since leaving the Senate, it is not unusual to see her in Penguin diving”, or in the carpool line at their children’s school, where she serves on the board.
“They’re just, you know, normal New Hampshire parents,” the person added.
Now, Ayotte is trying to get back on the political ladder and lead the state.
This story originally appeared on NBCNews.com read the full story
