Stephen James Shurtleff, born on September 4, 1947, is an American politician from the state of New Hampshire. He has served as a member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives from the Merrimack 11th district. He is a member of the Democratic Party.
Shurtleff was born and raised in Concord, New Hampshire. He graduated from Bishop Brady High School and earned an Associate of Arts degree from the City College of Chicago. He served in the U.S. Army for three years, including one year in Vietnam. After his military service, he worked as a supervisory deputy U.S. Marshal.
In 2004, Shurtleff ran for election to the New Hampshire House of Representatives as a Democrat. He was also elected as an at-large member of the Concord City Council in 2007. Shurtleff served as the majority leader of the New Hampshire House in the 2012-14 session. When the Republican Party took control of the chamber in the 2014 elections in November 2014, the Democratic caucus elected Shurtleff as the new minority leader of the New Hampshire House, succeeding outgoing Speaker Terie Norelli as the Democratic leader. He served as speaker of the house from 2018 to 2020, while Democrats had the majority.
In 2022, in the spirit of bipartisanship, former Speaker Shurtleff was named Speaker Emeritus of the N.H. House by the Republican House Speaker Sherm Packard. He is the first member of the N.H. House to hold all four of House’s leadership positions, Minority Leader, Majority Leader, Speaker and Speaker Emeritus.
Shurtleff is from Ward One of Concord, New Hampshire, the village of Penacook. In 2020 he was one of New Hampshire’s four Presidential Electors. In 2013, Shurtleff received the Henry Toll Fellowship from the Council of State Government. He has three children and two wonderful grandchildren.
