The First 100 Days of a Maggie Hassan Presidency: What the Record Suggests

Hero photo: 14 August 2010 in New Hampshire State Capitol, Concord, NH — via Wikimedia Commons.

01 The scenario: the AI-security governor-turned-senator

This is a scenario analysis, not a prediction that the person will become president and not an endorsement or criticism of the person. This article does not predict that Maggie Hassan will become president. It examines how the New Hampshire Democrat's documented positions and record could translate into executive priorities if placed in presidential office.

The premise rests on a specific record: a two-term senator who spent 2025 running an AI-security legislative streak, passed a bipartisan fentanyl-crisis bill through Congress, paired with Josh Hawley on drug pricing and Steve Daines on retirement savings, and took a new Homeland Security subcommittee leadership post on federal-spending oversight. A reasonable inference from these positions is a first 100 days built around AI-security direction-setting and enforcement-heavy executive action, with the big-ticket items — research competitions, penalties, grant programs — sent to Congress.

The record below draws on her official releases, the HSGA committee site, and Sen. Daines's office. Where the evidence runs out, this article says so.

02 The record: who Maggie Hassan is

Hassan has represented New Hampshire in the Senate since 2017 and is serving her second term. She is an attorney (Boston University JD) who served as New Hampshire Governor from 2013 to 2017, and before that as a New Hampshire State Senator from 2004 to 2010, including as majority leader from 2008 to 2012 — a governor's resume, which matters for this scenario: she has already run an executive branch.

Her 119th-Congress committees: Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs (Border Management, Federal Workforce, and Regulatory Affairs; Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations); Health, Education, Labor and Pensions; Finance; Veterans' Affairs; and Ranking Member of the Joint Economic Committee. She has announced a new leadership position on the HSGA subcommittee focused on federal-spending oversight and emergency management — the exact chair-versus-ranking designation was not captured in the research pass, so evidence strength on that title is moderate.

03 AI security: the signature streak

Hassan's 2025 signature file is AI security. On Dec. 5, 2025 she and Sen. Jim Banks (R-IN) introduced the bipartisan Reliable Artificial Intelligence Research Act of 2025, creating federally funded research competitions to harden AI systems and reveal how they make decisions: “we need to make sure that these systems are secure and that they make reliable decisions... strengthen our defenses against bad actors and foreign adversaries like China, who may utilize AI to hurt Americans.” She also co-sponsored prior AI-extreme-risk legislation with Romney, Reed, Moran and King, and with Sen. Joni Ernst sounded the alarm on Chinese AI-enabled hackers, urging the National Cyber Director to prepare the government. On Dec. 12, 2025 she helped introduce the bipartisan AI Workforce PREPARE Act.

Her campaign/office explicitly calls for research competitions and workforce preparation — statutory items that would require congressional approval rather than unilateral presidential action. But the National Cyber Director and NIST are executive: a president could direct AI-security priorities there on day one, which is exactly the lever her Ernst letter already uses. A reasonable inference from these positions is a first 100 days of executive AI-security directives paired with the research bills sent to Congress.

04 Fentanyl and interdiction

On Sept. 18, 2025 her office announced: “To the President's Desk: Senator Hassan Passes Major Bipartisan Bill to Address Fentanyl Crisis” — her fentanyl-crisis legislation passed Congress. As an HSGA member she has focused on drug interdiction and holding agencies accountable on fentanyl precursor trafficking. The digest did not capture the exact name and number of the passed bill — a verification caveat noted below.

The enforcement pieces are presidential levers: interdiction surges, CBP and DEA tasking, and sanctions on traffickers sit with the executive. Her bill codifies penalties requiring Congress. A reasonable inference from these positions is a first 100 days of interdiction directives and sanctions designations that a president can order alone, with the codified penalties already in statute behind them.

05 Health care costs and drug pricing

Hassan pairs with Republicans on prescription-drug costs. On Aug. 25, 2025 she and Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) introduced bipartisan legislation to combat Big Pharma patent abuse and lower prescription drug costs; on July 9, 2025 she introduced a bipartisan bill to cut Medicare waste, fraud and abuse. On July 1, 2025 she issued a statement blasting Senate Republicans' reconciliation budget bill as one that would “take away health care from millions of Americans.”

Medicare negotiation and patent-abuse enforcement at USPTO and FDA have administrative day-one levers; the statutory drug-price bills need Congress. On subsidies, the digest notes that if Congress does not act on ACA premium tax credits, subsidy levels fall automatically — a new president could direct administrative accommodation but cannot create subsidies unilaterally. This would require congressional approval rather than unilateral presidential action for the durable fix.

06 Oversight and federal spending

Hassan sits on the HSGA Border Management, Federal Workforce, and Regulatory Affairs subcommittee and the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, and announced a new leadership position on a subcommittee focused on federal-spending oversight and emergency management. On May 19, 2026 she attacked Republicans for advancing what she called a “partisan slush fund for ICE, Trump's ballroom” out of the Homeland Security Committee.

The digest marks HSGA oversight as a first-100-days accountability lever that requires no presidential buy-in: subpoena and oversight hearings of an administration's agencies are congressional work. For a President Hassan the inversion holds — she would be the first governor-senator in this file who has both run an executive branch and spent years investigating one, and that record suggests an administration designed to withstand the oversight she has practiced.

07 Cybersecurity, retirement and college costs

On Dec. 1, 2025 Hassan introduced a bipartisan bill reauthorizing the critical State and Local Cybersecurity Grant Program. On July 24, 2025 she and Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) introduced a bipartisan bill to boost employee retirement savings and support business owners. On Dec. 4, 2025 she reintroduced a bipartisan bill to reduce college costs and increase completion rates, with a long-standing student-loan-debt focus on HELP.

Each of these is a grant program, tax-adjacent benefit, or higher-education subsidy — all appropriations or statute. This would require congressional approval rather than unilateral presidential action. A reasonable inference from these positions is that a President Hassan's domestic legislative package would look like her Senate portfolio: cybersecurity grants, retirement access, college costs — introduced with Republican partners wherever possible.

08 What the record cannot tell us

The evidence runs out on the flanks. There is not enough public evidence to determine her position on immigration enforcement beyond ICE-funding criticism, or on energy — no documented position on either was found in the research pass, and none should be assumed.

Two verification caveats: the exact name and number of the fentanyl bill that passed on Sept. 18, 2025 was not captured in the digest and should be verified before citing; and her new HSGA subcommittee leadership title — chair versus ranking member, and the precise subcommittee name — is confirmed only by the hsgac.senate.gov headline. Her 2026 re-election plans were not researched in this pass.

What the record suggests is a presidency run like the governorship she held: executive direction on AI security and interdiction in the first 100 days, bipartisan bill packages sent to Congress, and an unusually high tolerance for oversight — because she has spent two years practicing it. Where the record runs out — immigration, energy — this article says so rather than filling in.