In a previous issue of The Beacon, Stephen Pierce refuted a letter from a Beacon reader criticizing state Senator Dan Innis’s record. I’m happy to defend the letter Mr. Pierce responded to and provide the citations Mr. Pierce was unwilling to look up for himself.

Senator Innis voted against legal protections for abortion (CACR24), opposed removing criminal penalties for doctors who perform abortion (HB224), and is endorsed by the anti-choice Political Action Committee, New Hampshire Right to Life. Senator Innis responded to a survey, saying he supports a ban on classroom discussion about race and gender. Republicans passed a similar ban on teaching students accurate accounting of history, which a federal judge ruled as unconstitutional. 

This law is unsupported by 70 percent of voters. Mr. Pierce appears to have cherry-picked that statistic, without providing a citation to back it up, for his own political purposes. In 2022, the New Hampshire Bulletin found that 52 percentr of Granite Staters oppose the law.

Contrary to Mr. Pierce’s letter, Ms. Cangiano does believe free speech extends to commenting on elections, including Senator Innis’s right to, as Ms. Cangiano said, “dismiss the results of free and fair elections,” which Senator Innis did repeatedly. For example, on December 2, 2020, a month before the January 6 insurrection, Senator Innis tweeted, “If this is not fully vetted, there will be a civil war. Mark my words.”

He continued, “I do NOT accept the presidential election result anymore. It is an attempt at a coup.”

I hope these citations clear up Mr. Pierce’s confusion about Innis’ record.

Ken Wells
Andover