New Hampshire Republicans, after admittedly getting their “clock cleaned” in the midterm elections, elected a new chair and vice chair Saturday and renewed a commitment to run the party as a professional organization.With nearly 400 members of the state committee in attendance at the Pinkerton Academy, the party elected longtime conservative activist and former Trump state campaign co-chair Stephen Stepanek of Amherst as NHGOP chair for the next two years, succeeding Wayne MacDonald.Although the vote totals were not announced, WMUR confirmed that Stepanek defeated Sullivan County GOP Chairman Keith Hanson by a margin of 300-81, while Michael Callis, who did not attend the meeting, received no votes.The members also elected former New Hampshire House Deputy Speaker Pam Tucker of Greenland as vice chair. She defeated former Cheshire County Republican Chair Kate Day. Sources said the tally was 223-198.Stepanek immediately called for party unity and said fundraising and grassroots organizing will be his priorities.He said he will be heading to Washington soon to “develop relationships” and raise money.“We have to now unite,” Stepanek implored the state committee members. “I cannot do this alone. I’m going to look at every single one of you, and I’m going to look to you to deliver much more effort than you’ve done before. Because we have a long road to go, and we are going to have to work very hard.“The ultimate goal is to make New Hampshire completely red again.”“Now we’re starting from ground zero. We’re going to start at the grassroots. That’s what will make this party great again,” Stepanek said. “We are going to win in 2020, and we are going to make this a red island in the middle of a blue sea.”The meeting was also a soul-searching session of sorts for the party following a devastating midterm election in which Democrats won majorities of the state House and Senate, as well as the Executive Council. Democrats also retained the state's two U.S. House seats.Gov. Chris Sununu, who was the bright spot for the NHGOP in November, winning re-election, started the day saying, “There’s a lot of fire in this room and at the State House. Not anger, passion.”He said that while Democrats now hold majorities in the Legislature, “I don’t mind. I've got veto pens. We’ll use them. We’ll use them." He noted that the Democratic majorities are not large enough to override vetoes. “We’re in a little bit of a blip right now,” Sununu said. “We’re licking our wounds.”But Sununu told the party, “The days of doing things as we have done it are done. They are done.”“Structurally, we are going to make serious changes. We are going to run the party as a professional organization.” Sununu made a spirited fundraising pitch. He said that the party “has the message,” but members and supporters must become serious about raising money to deliver that message to voters.“It can come from New Hampshire. It can come from Washington. I don’t care where it comes from.”He also said the party must create a strong grassroots organization.While criticizing the Democrats on policy, Sununu said that “politically,” they have been strong “for years.”He said that going forward, he will take personal responsibility for the party’s fortunes. He then handed MacDonald a $5,000 check.Sununu following the meeting congratulated the new leaders. He stayed neutral in the race for party chair.After Sununu made his contributions, members passed two “Make America Great Again” hats to collect money for the party. It was unclear how much they raised.“Let’s face it,” said New Hampshire House Republican Leader Richard Hinch. “Aside from Gov. Sununu’s re-election -- thank God for that -- we got our clock cleaned last November. We didn’t expect it, we didn’t deserve it, but now is the time where we can move forward together, stronger.”“Democrats in the Legislature have swooped in like bats, believing that they have some sort of mandate for radical change,” Hinch said. “I submit they’re all bats..t crazy.”Hinch listed Democratic legislation that has been brought forward With each mention, the crowd reacted, “Hell no.”Party treasurer Robert Kasper leveled with the members.He said that in the 2018 midterm campaign, “we were out-spent, out-organized and out-messaged in the state of New Hampshire.”Kasper said the state Democratic Party outspent the NHGOP by $3 million and local GOP committees were outspent 10-1. He said that while 34 Democratic city or town committees raised enough money to file financial reports with the Secretary of State’s Office, only five local GOP committees raised enough to file.Prior to the vote Stepanek said, “We got our heads handed to us the last time. There’s no getting around it. We were out-fundraised by the Democrats, we were out-messaged by the Democrats, we were out-organized by the Democrats and we failed at the polls“We cannot let that happen again,” he said. “We have to rebuild this party from the ground up.”Stepanek promised to create more town GOP committees and get more Granite Staters involved in the party.“The other thing we have to do is fundraise, and then we have to fundraise some more, and then we have to fundraise on top of that.”He said he has a business plan that includes fundraising from national sources as well as local ones.“We’ve got to go to Washington, we’ve got to go to New York, we’ve got to go to Las Vegas" to raise money.Stepanek said that while the New Hampshire Democratic Party receives contributions from its "special interests" nationally, as well as locally, the NHGOP has received virtually no financial help from its special interest groups based outside of the state.Hanson, before delivering a fiery speech, stood with Susan DeLemus, the wife of Jerry DeLemus, who is imprisoned after being convicted in connection with the Bundy ranch standoff. Susan DeLemus led the committee members in singing “God Bless America.”“We need to unify this party. We need to come together. There is so much infighting,” Hanson said. “I don’t yield to special interests. I speak the truth, I speak from the heart and I expose corruption.”“I have the energy. I have the enthusiasm. I have the leadership skills to empower, to uplift, to inspire. That is what you need – young invigorated outspoken, enthusiastic leadership.”He promised to deliver “inspired, outspoken leadership" to "take it to (state Democratic Chair) Ray Buckley and the Democrats and tell them, ‘No more. Your reign of terror ends when I take that chair.’”Hanson, however, fell far short of Stepanek when the votes were counted.Following the vote, former New Hampshire House Speaker William O’Brien praised Stepanek, who is his friend and business partner. Stepanek served as House deputy majority leader when O’Brien was speaker in 2010 and subsequent years.“Our party is fortunate that we have elected such strong leadership. I worked with Steve when he was chairman of the Ways and Means Committee when I was speaker, and he was the go-to person when it came to moving forward our agenda,” O’Brien said. “And moving it forward in a way that brought to us many of the moderates in our caucus and some Democrats as welI.”Meanwhile, NHDP Chair Buckley issued a brief statement on Stepanek's election: "Good luck with that." As WMUR reported this week, Buckley will be elected to his seventh term as NHDP chair on March 9. The filing period for NHDP officers closed last week and no one filed to oppose him.Other NHGOP officers elected on Saturday were Kasper, who was unopposed, as treasurer; Jane Lane, who was unopposed, as secretary; and Alan Glassman, who defeated Christopher Maidment, as assistant secretary.