RAYMOND — Ovide Lamontagne sent a strong message Wednesday night at a meeting of the Raymond Republican Committee that he will soon officially be running for governor.

“I said it at the end of April… God willing and Betty (his wife) approving, I hope to be part of the conversation. I can tell you tonight, Betty approves,” Lamontagne said to the 50 or so area residents gathered at Torrent Hall.

He said they hope to make an official announcement after Labor Day.

Lamontagne said he did not set out after the 2010 election thinking of running for governor, but the support and affirmation he has received from voters led him to “seriously consider it.”

State Sen. and Raymond resident Jack Barnes said if Lamontagne runs, he will have the senator’s support. “The town of Raymond was very happy to be the place where he put his toe in the water. Now we need his whole foot in, which will happen after Labor Day,” Barnes said.

Sally Paradis is a member of the Raymond Republican Committee helping to organize a series of forums that will introduce residents to presidential candidates and others running for office in advance of the New Hampshire primary. She said they are not endorsing any candidates, but that it was exciting that Lamontagne used Raymond to unofficially launch his campaign.

“It is evidence of the popularity he has in the Raymond area,” Paradis said.

During his talk, Lamontagne spoke often about the need for strong leadership and big changes at the state level as well as in Washington.

“It is about time we have leaders who say we are ready to wean ourselves off of the federal dependency, which we’ve allowed to happen,” Lamontagne said.

He said there is no room for the federal government in education and health care policies for individual states.

“The principle of subsidiary says we should let the government closest to the delivery site, closest to the people, handle those issues. We should not centralize but decentralize, it is what the reformation is all about, getting power from Washington to the states and to the people,” he said.

Lamontagne said if he runs, it will not be “against” any candidate.

“You run for office because of what you think you can do… if you are not willing to run and lose, you are not running for the right reason,”

Lamontagne said. “There will be clear choices, so I think we need to not focus on Gov. Lynch, but on what we can do.”

Presidential hopeful Buddy Roma also spoke at Wednesday night’s gathering.