Lamontagne, O'Brien Speak in Windham [VIDEO]

A crowd of New Hampshire House Republican leaders joined Windham residents and town officials at a reception on Thursday, Sept. 22.

The reception was organized at the home of Peter and Cara Zohdi to benefit the NH House Republican Victory PAC. Also on the host committee were vice chair of the Windham Board of Selectmen Bruce Breton, along with Eric and Ellen Nickerson.

The line of invitees included such names as Ovide Lamontagne, who announced he was Also in attendance was William O'Brien, the current New Hampshire Speaker of the House.

Scattered throughout the audience were various state representatives, including David Bates (R-Windham), Kevin Waterhouse (R-Windham) and House Majority Leader D.J. Bettencourt (R-Salem).

It's a group of leaders that Lamontagne referred to as "warriors.

"This is a great leadership team, and we need to help them in every way that we can," said Lamontagne. "If I can ever have the honor of serving the people of New Hampshire, I'll be a governor for you that will fight for you and work with them."

O'Brien spoke about his experiences last term in the House of Representatives, when the Republicans were in the minority. He addressed what he and his colleagues had to do in that situation.

"(We) tried to bring attention to what the alternative was -- what the Republican alternative was," said O'Brien. "It required us to be maybe a little more vocal and a little bit more outrageous than we might have chosen to be in other circumstances. Having garnered that kind of reputation, I knew that when I became speaker I was going to have to turn to a very sane individual."

O'Brien introduced that "individual" as Pam Tucker, Deputy House Speaker. She spoke to the audience about the importance of capturing an overwhelming Republican majority in the House.

"What we started back in November in terms of taking over and having a Republican majority was much more than we ever imagined when we gained over 75 percent of the House," said Tucker. "It started with people like you helping and getting out there and supporting us at the ground level."

Bettencourt also briefly spoke, thanking the group for giving him the opportunity to lead despite his young age.

"It was you folks back in 2004, when I was first running at 20 years old, who placed your confidence in me and who looked beyond my age and said let's give the kid a chance," said Bettencourt.

Bettencourt finished by offering his goodbyes to the residents in attendance, referencing the redistricting that will no longer have him serving both Windham and Salem.