An autopsy found COVID-19 killed New Hampshire House Speaker Richard Hinch.
The determination by New Hampshire Chief Medical Examiner Jennie Duval was announced on Thursday, one day after the 71-year-old Republican died and a week after Hinch was sworn in as speaker.
“We are deeply saddened that the pandemic that spares no one afflicted our friend and colleague,” Senate President Chuck Morse and Rep. Sherman Packard said in a joint statement. Morse added that he considered Hinch to be one of his best friends, calling him a “kind and humble man,” according to the Concord Monitor.
Gov. Chris Sununu ordered all flags on Wednesday to fly at half-staff and recalled Hinch as a friend and “fierce defender of the New Hampshire Advantage.”
U.S. Sen. Maggie Hassan, a Democrat, also expressed her condolences for Hinch, saying he was deeply committed to public service.
Hinch was beginning his seventh term as a state representative. He was a U.S. Navy veteran who was active in his community and the owner and principal broker of a real estate agency.
After he was elected speaker on Dec. 2, Hinch called for lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to come together as “friends and colleagues” amid the highly partisan climate that’s worsened throughout the pandemic.
New Hampshire Attorney General Gordon MacDonald, who announced the cause of death on Thursday after getting approval from Hinch’s family, said the family wishes for privacy in its time of grief.
“During this difficult time, the family has requested that their privacy continue to be respected,” MacDonald said in a statement.
New Hampshire has had more than 27,000 COVID-19 cases and more than 500 deaths attributed to it.
