Ann McLane Kuster

This past summer, I announced my plans to run for Congress to represent New Hampshire's second district. This campaign will no doubt be an incredible adventure and I hope to earn your support.

But first, let me tell you a little bit about myself.

I've been a longtime community activist, attorney author, and public policy advocate specializing in improving access to quality health care and affordable higher education.  The Granite State is a very special place for me -- I was born and raised in Concord, and my husband Brad and I have raised two boys here.

I've spent most of my life working to make life better for families here. I'm running for Congress to make sure Washington makes the smart changes that really help people in New Hampshire. I'll always be a pro-choice, pro-jobs, and pro-environment kind of candidate. You can count on that!

In the coming months and years, we can make quality health care affordable for all of us, we can help families save for college, and we can take bold steps to preserve jobs and create new ones by making New Hampshire the hub on alternative energy which will create thousands of clean energy jobs and reduce our dependence on foreign oil. At the same time, we'll make sure that every tax dollar is spent wisely, or not spent at all.

Over the campaign, I will be traveling from town to town to visit with New Hampshire families to listen and share my ideas on the important challenges we all face. I look forward to seeing you soon.

All my best,

 

Ann McLane Kuster

COMMUNITY ACTIVIST

Annie has been a longtime community activist and received the Athena Award for professional excellence, community service and assistance to women. She has served on many non-profit boards across New Hampshire including:

• New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, Board of Trustees
• New Hampshire Public Radio, Board of Trustees
• Capitol Center for the Arts, Chair
• Women's Fund of New Hampshire, Vice-Chair and Founder
• United Way of Merrimack County, Chair
• Trust for Public Land N.H. Advisory Council
• Womankind Counseling Center
• Tucker Foundation for community service, Dartmouth College
• Healthy Beginnings Advisory Committee, Concord Hospital
• Concord Regional Visiting Nurse Association, Co-Chair Capital Campaign for Hospice House
• Child and Family Services of New Hampshire, Co-Chair Capitol Campaign for Camp Spaulding

Annie has been honored as the recipient of the Voice for Children award by Child and Family Services of New Hampshire, and the Champion for Choice award by NARAL-Pro Choice New Hampshire.

DEMOCRATIC ACTIVIST

Annie served on the statewide steering committees of the presidential campaign's for both Barack Obama in 2007-2008 and John Kerry in 2003-2004. She also served as Co-Chair with Peggo Hodes of New Hampshire Women for Obama. She was a 2008 Obama delegate at the Democratic National Convention in Denver and a member of the 2004 New Hampshire Delegation in Boston. In 2000, Annie received the Eleanor Roosevelt Award for dedicated service to the Democratic Party at the local, state and national level.

AUTHOR

With her late mother, State Senator Susan McLane, Annie co-authored a book entitled “The Last Dance: Facing Alzheimer's with Love and Laughter.” Annie and her father, Malcolm McLane, toured the state speaking out about aging and Alzheimer's disease and the burdens on families and caregivers.

Recognized for her efforts, in 2008, Annie received the Rainbow Award from Riverbend Community Mental Health Center which celebrates those who raise awareness of mental-health issues in New Hampshire.

ADVOCATE

Annie has worked as a partner in the Concord law firm of Rath, Young and Pignatelli, serving as Director of the firm's Education and NonProfit Law Practice Group. She has focused her legal practice primarily on education, nonprofit and health care policy. Additionally, she is a member of the American Academy of Adoption Attorneys and over the past 25 years has helped hundreds of New Hampshire families adopt a child.

Annie received the 2004 Marilla M. Ricker Achievement Award from the New Hampshire Women's Bar Association, presented for achieving professional excellence, advancing opportunities for women in the legal profession, and performing exemplary public service on behalf of women.

As a legislative advocate, Annie worked with New Hampshire colleges to pass legislation that created the UNIQUE 529 College Savings Program to help families save for their children to attend college.

She worked with a coalition of health care providers to create the Medication Bridge Program that distributes free medication to New Hampshire families and seniors who cannot afford the high cost of prescription drugs.

When her neighbors banded together to take-on a power company that was trying to burn toxic demolition debris in their town, Annie and her husband Brad volunteered to help.  Their community won the fight and  banned this harmful threat statewide.

 

NEW HAMPSHIRE ROOTS

Ann McLane Kuster was born and raised in Concord, New Hampshire. She and her husband Brad now live nearby in Hopkinton where they raise their two sons, Zach and Travis. Brad Kuster is an environmental lawyer and Zach and Travis attend college in New Hampshire

Annie's late mother was former State Senator Susan McLane, a pioneer for women in New Hampshire politics. Her late father, Malcolm McLane, was Mayor of Concord, a New Hampshire Executive Councilor, and one of the state's most prominent attorneys for over 50 years.