Brandon Phinney (born April 27, 1988) is an American politician and former member of the

New Hampshire House of Representatives The New Hampshire House of Representatives is the lower house in the New Hampshire General Court, the bicameral State legislature (United States), legislature of the state of New Hampshire. The House of Representatives consists of 400 members com ...

, representing Strafford County's 24th district.

Career

Phinney earned his

associate degree An associate degree or associate's degree is an undergraduate degree awarded after a course of post-secondary study lasting two to three years. It is a level of academic qualification above a high school diploma and below a bachelor's degree ...

from Great Bay Community College and his

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...

from

Southern New Hampshire University Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) is a private university between Manchester, New Hampshire, Manchester and Hooksett, New Hampshire, United States. The university is accredited by the New England Commission of Higher Education, along with ...

. In 2016, he was elected to the New Hampshire House of Representatives as a Republican, beating his Democratic opponent by just 116 votes. There, he became notable in

atheist Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...

circles as the only openly atheist Republican legislator in the United States. On June 27, 2017, he announced in a press conference that he had changed his party affiliation to Libertarian. Phinney was defeated for re-election in a three-way race, finishing in third place with 10% of the total vote. He was succeeded by Republican Mona Perreault. Following his defeat, he announced he would run for Rochester City Council in 2019. He was elected to the State House again in 2022.

Electoral history

2016

2018

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Phinney, Brandon 1988 births Living people American atheists Libertarian Party (United States) officeholders Republican Party members of the New Hampshire House of Representatives New Hampshire Libertarians Southern New Hampshire University alumni 21st-century members of the New Hampshire General Court

Career

Electoral history

2016

2018

See also

References