Trish Regan's Granite State Story
The Fox Business anchor recalls her New Hampshire roots
You might know Trish Regan as a rising presence on Fox Business Network. There, she anchored coverage of the RNC and DNC conventions and now, as host of “The Intelligence Report with Trish Regan,” claims the title of “No. 1 Female Business Anchor on Television.” What you might not know is that Regan’s grandfather was a night watchman at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, her aunt was mayor of the same coastal city, and her uncle, Paul McEachern, famously (albeit unsuccessfully) tried to unseat Gov. John H. Sununu as the Democrats’ gubernatorial nominee in 1986.
Suffice it to say, her Granite State roots run deep. “Every time I do an interview with someone from Manchester and I look at that backdrop of the Amoskeag mills, I think, ‘You know what, my great-grandfather worked in those mills. My grandmother grew up in housing that the Amoskeag mills provided,’” Regan, who grew up in Hampton herself, reminisced recently between shows. “I’m very lucky to have the opportunities I had, and it’s all because of the hard work of my previous generations that lived in New Hampshire.” Read on for more musings on her home state below.
How NH informs her approach to newsgathering: “New Hampshire people take themselves pretty seriously, and it’s in part because they have a real responsibility every four years to be influential to the country. That shaped a lot of how I thought about political and economic issues, knowing I need to approach them seriously. There’s a kind of responsibility I have as a journalist, or as a Granite Stater, to make sure that I’m being fair and I’m thinking about what, from a policy perspective, is right for the country.”
On her politically engaged family: “There was one Republican who dared to vote for Reagan! I talk about this quite a bit on the air because I think my family sort of represented that Irish Catholic blue-collar Democrat … I’m an independent. I have some views that fall more in line with the right and some that fall more in line with the left, but I’m always willing to give everybody a fair shake.”
The 1984 presidential primary gave Regan her first scoop: “Walter Mondale, when I was a little kid, was in our driveway giving a speech. I can remember tape-recording the whole thing, and going into class the next day and playing excerpts from it. That basically was my first official report. I was so excited because Geraldine Ferraro was on the ticket at the time. It made a big impact on me.”
Why she hopes her medium doesn’t replace retail campaigning: “Politics has changed a lot, and it’s more of a television medium now. I really think Donald Trump proved he could connect to voters by going through the media, as opposed to, say, going to every little coffee and every little sit-down event in New Hampshire. That is one of the things I like best about that state, that anybody can come in and really have a chance to succeed politically.”
Most weekends, she’d rather be lakeside: “My husband and I had a home for many years on Lake Winnipesaukee in Moultonborough. We bought it when we were living in California because we wanted to feel connected to the state. When we moved back to New York, we used to drive up every Friday night, and we didn’t care how long it took us. We would make that drive because it was worth it to be able to wake up on Saturday morning and drink your coffee and look out at Lake Winnipesaukee.”
Her favorite spots to visit with family: “As a kid, we used to ski at The Balsams … Now, as a mother of three, we take our kids to the Omni Mount Washington Resort almost every year, and that is where they have learned to ski. I have wonderful memories of Applecrest Farm in Hampton Falls, where I used to pick apples. I’ve taken my kids back there quite a bit, and they love it.”
