page_title: Kelly Ayotte
section_title: Political positions
hierarchical_section_title: Kelly Ayotte / Political positions
caption_attribution_description: English: @ National Harbor, Maryland
context_page_description: Kelly Ann Ayotte is an American attorney and politician who served as a Republican United States Senator from 2011 to 2017 and Attorney General for New Hampshire from 2004 to 2009.
  Born and raised in Nashua, New Hampshire, Ayotte is a graduate of Nashua High School, Pennsylvania State University and Villanova University School of Law. She worked as a law clerk for the New Hampshire Supreme Court before entering private practice. She also worked as a prosecutor for the New Hampshire Department of Justice, and briefly served as the legal counsel to New Hampshire Governor Craig Benson, before returning to the Department of Justice to serve as Deputy Attorney General of New Hampshire.
  In June 2004, Governor Benson appointed Ayotte as Attorney General of New Hampshire, after the resignation of Peter Heed. She became the first and only woman to serve as New Hampshire's Attorney General, serving from 2004 to 2009, after she was twice reappointed by Democratic governor John Lynch. In July 2009, Ayotte resigned as Attorney General to pursue a bid for the U.S. Senate, after three-term incumbent Judd Gregg announced his retirement from the Senate.
context_section_description: Ayotte has been described as both a conservative Republican and a centrist. After her 2010 election, the Associated Press referred to Ayotte as "a conservative Republican" and two years later, NBC News described her "unique identity in the Senate as a Northeastern conservative Republican woman." She demonstrated centrist tendencies in her voting record, including working with Democrats on some issues. The New York Times described her as a moderate Republican. The Lugar Center at Georgetown University ranked Ayotte as the 11th most bipartisan member of the U.S. Senate during the 113th Congress. The American Conservative Union gave her a 64% lifetime score and the progressive Americans for Democratic Action gave her a 35% score; the nonpartisan National Journal gave her a composite score of 67% conservative and 33% liberal based on her voting record.
caption: Senator Ayotte speaking at the 2013 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC)
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