A week after dismissing Democratic colleagues’ warnings, NH Speaker found dead from COVID-19

On Thursday, New Hampshire’s newly elected Republican House Speaker died from COVID-19. A week after Rep. Dick Hinch tearfully accepted the nomination, he was found dead in his home. On Thursday, state officials announced that his death was related to COVID-19. Hinch had been Speaker for a week. He was beginning his seventh term as a representative from Merrimack, and had been the leader of his New Hampshire House GOP, which had flipped red this November.

On Thursday, New Hampshire’s Republican Gov. Chris Sununu spoke highly of the late Hinch, but also directed a warning at Republicans playing political games with public health, saying: “For those who are just out there doing the opposite just to make some ridiculous political point, it is horribly wrong. Please use your heads. Don’t act like a bunch of children, frankly.” This is rich coming from Sununu, who spent the first part of the pandemic referring to COVID-19 as “the flu” and downplaying calls for declarations of a public health emergency in his state. …

I’m sure it helped that he didn’t know how to properly wear a mask.