[This article appears in the July/August 2024 print issue of Boston Spirit magazine. Subscribe for free today.]
There are a few popular complaints that people have about politics. One is that politicians are inauthentic. Another is that a few votes won’t make a big difference.
Enter Emmett Soldati, who is ready to prove both counts wrong.
Soldati is no establishment New Hampshire politician. He’s in his thirties, he’s queer and he’s a proudly out business owner who made national headlines for being protested by religious zealots and neo-Nazis. But simply by being himself, and connecting with voters over the issues that unite them, he might win an election for a little-known office that wields surprisingly huge influence over important issues.
“We need to be thinking about alternative ways to take back our power,” says Soldati, who is running for a seat on the New Hampshire Governor’s Executive Council. The five-person council operates as a check on the governor by holding veto power over contracts, pardons, and nominations—including, very importantly, judicial nominations. Very few states have a council like this, and New Hampshire is the only one where it is more than a mere advisory body.
Never heard of it? You’re not alone. The Governor’s Executive Council is a relatively obscure outfit, Soldati acknowledges, and something that a lot of voters might skip over on a ballot. As a result, officials who quietly wield significant authority on behalf of their constituents are often elected by razor-thin margins. It’s a paragon example of the idea that every single vote counts.
It’s also a state body that feels more important than ever, Soldati says, when you consider the rightwing turn that the federal judiciary has taken, in large part due to unqualified and ideologically driven judgeship appointments made during the Trump administration. “We can’t take for granted that we’re protected by the federal government,” he says. “We need to take state government even more seriously.”
When it comes to LGBTQ issues, the veto power of the council could be particularly impactful in New Hampshire, where gerrymandered redistricting now disproportionately benefits Republican candidates, Soldati says. Conservativism maintains a toehold, he adds, because New Hampshire’s state senators and representatives are only paid a token $100 a year. That makes it near-impossible for younger people, working- or middle-class folks to consider pursuing political office, and the result is a legislature dominated by the independently wealthy and “old white men who treat the government as a retirement club.”
It’s because of all this, Soldati believes, that his New England state has become a hotbed of culture-war issues that used to be reserved for deeply red territories: so-called “bathroom bills” and legislation related to book bans, pronouns and critical race theory have all been introduced in recent years, with varying degrees of success.
Soldati has felt the sting of the far right on a personal level as owner of Teatotaller, an unabashedly queer coffee shop and café with locations in Concord and Dover, New Hampshire. In 2017, Teatotaller made waves with a roadside billboard featuring a “very flamboyant, very gender queer” local in a seductive pose alongside the slogan, “I like my men like I like my coffee.” The billboard elicited an outcry and was defaced. In 2023, white supremacist protestors interrupted a drag story hour at Teatotaller, pounding its wall of windows and raising neo-Nazi salutes from the other side.
Despite all that, Soldati has faith in the goodness of the people he grew up with in the Granite State and continues to carry his queer identity with confidence. In doing so, he radiates an authenticity that voters seem to appreciate. “Subconsciously, I just assume that everyone is going to accept me,” Soldati says. “I believe that at the heart of any community is a sense that all people want to belong, and I’m going to assume people want me to belong too, until proven otherwise. That’s allowed me to dispel a lot of myths before entering a community.”
“I have an inspiring message and I like to speak to people’s hearts,” Soldati says. “We could radically improve and transform our communities. We don’t have to just assume the way of the past is the way of the future. That message is going to turn people out and change the balance of power.” [x]
More: emmettsoldati.com
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