About David

Senator David Watters has served five terms in the New Hampshire Senate, working on various committees, including Education, Energy and Natural Resources, Transportation, Capital Budget, and Executive Departments and Administration. He also serves on policy commissions on environmental, transportation, education, historical resources, and recovery.

When he was elected State Senator for District 4 in 2012, after serving two terms in the New Hampshire House of Representatives, David Watters vowed to restore civility to Concord and protect the New Hampshire advantage of equal opportunity, economic development, public education, a sustainable and healthy environment, low taxes and quality of life.  In his first term, Watters established himself as a pragmatic leader willing to work across party lines to bring people together, protect middle class families and keep New Hampshire moving forward.

On education, David’s legislation established all-day kindergarten in New Hampshire, vastly improved and expanded Career and Technical Education programs and built new centers, and supported lower costs for students at the Community College and University systems, including a tuition freeze to reduce student debt.

In his five terms in the Senate, he has established himself as an environmental and clean energy leader for the state and achieved national recognition. He represents New Hampshire on the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, which regulates fishing from Maine to Florida. He led the nation in passing bills to establish wildlife corridors, ban trade in endangered species, and protect New Hampshire residents from zoonotic diseases. He led the fight to get PFAS forever chemicals out of our water, establishing a $50 million bond fund to help municipalities and homeowners get clean water. His landmark legislation established a 10-year plan to reduce solid waste in the state and ramp up recycling.

David is the renewable energy leader in the Senate, promoting jobs and cheaper energy. He established the New Hampshire Coastal Risks and Hazards Commission to study sea-level rise, coastal flooding, and extreme precipitation, which set a national model. He created the New Hampshire Commission on Coastal Marine Environment and Resources. He passed the bills to ensure funding for energy efficiency for low-income residents, to promote solar energy, and to establish the New Hampshire Commission on Offshore Wind and Port Development, which he chairs. He is instrumental in efforts to bring the $15 billion industry to development wind energy in the Gulf of Maine to New Hampshire. He is also the leader on Electric Vehicle infrastructure through the state commission he chaired. David has been recognized as a Legislative Energy Champion for NH Clean Energy Week, and received the prestigious national Leon G. Billings Environmental Achievement Award from the National Caucus of Environmental Legislators.

He is also a leader in fighting the opioid crisis and supporting people in recovery. He serves on the Governor’s Commission on Alcohol and Other Drugs. His legislation established the New Hampshire Recovery Monument Commission, and the New Hampshire Harm Reduction Study Committee.

Raised in West Hartford, Connecticut and educated at Dartmouth College and Brown University, David’s commitment to public service was inspired by his father, who was a Veteran’s Administration doctor for fifty years, and by his mother, who, after recuperating from polio, worked for Easter Seals to promote its sheltered workshop in Hartford.

As a professor at the University of New Hampshire for 39 years, David taught courses on New Hampshire and New England literature, history, and culture, and he was the Director of the Center for New England Culture. He coedited The Encyclopedia of New England and has written books and essays on literature and about New England’s old gravestones. He received the Lifetime Achievement in the Humanities Award from New Hampshire Humanities.

As a founding member of the Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire, he was project humanist for the feature-length film, Shadows Fall North, wrote and narrated the Concord Black Heritage Tour film, and was featured in New Hampshire Public Radio’s film series on New Hampshire Black History. He has served on the boards of the New Hampshire Historical Society, New Hampshire Humanities, Dover Adult Learning Center, The Robert Frost Farm Homestead, and Pontine Movement Theatre.

His wife, Jan Alberghene, is a retired English professor who taught at Fitchburg State University. Their son, Harper, is first soloist at Houston Ballet. David enjoys getting outdoors to run and ski, or going down cellar to his shop to do woodworking, particularly making Shaker oval boxes. David and Jan go to Houston whenever they can to see Harper dance.