Anthony DiLorenzo

Anthony DiLorenzo is an American businessman and Republican politician from New Hampshire, best known as the founder of Key Auto Group. Born in 1964, he moved to New Hampshire in the early 1980s for college, then dropped out to build his own business. His win in the 2026 NH-01 primary capped a decades-long run in the auto industry.

Anthony DiLorenzo — Bio/Wiki

Physical Appearance

Anthony DiLorenzo Early Life and Background

DiLorenzo’s great-grandparents came through Ellis Island around 1910 and settled in Harlem, New York, where his great-grandfather worked for the National Biscuit Company. His own father worked through college summers with no help from his parents, a lesson DiLorenzo says stuck with him.

New Hampshire wasn’t originally home. He arrived in the early 1980s to attend the University of New Hampshire, working full-time while taking classes. Money got tight and the pull of business proved stronger than school, so he left college around 1987, and that’s when his real career began.

Anthony DiLorenzo Education

DiLorenzo enrolled at the University of New Hampshire in the early 1980s but never finished his degree. Working full-time while attending classes eventually became too much to balance, and he left school around 1987 to focus on selling cars, a decision that set his entire career in motion.

Anthony DiLorenzo’s Family

Money was tight growing up, and DiLorenzo’s father made a point of it. He put himself through Columbia University working summer jobs, taking nothing from his own parents, and often brings up that story to make a point about how much harder young people have it financially today.

Family history runs even further back to Ellis Island, where his great-grandparents arrived around 1910 and built a life in Harlem, New York. That immigrant story, more than any single policy position, shapes how DiLorenzo talks about opportunity and hard work on the campaign trail.

He is married and describes himself as a proud father, though he keeps his wife and children out of the spotlight. In interviews, he has mentioned his wife’s early role in the business, including driving him around town while he resold cars bought cheap on the side.

Anthony DiLorenzo Career

DiLorenzo’s first steps into business were scrappy. After leaving college, he sold cars, saved up $7,000, and started buying vehicles other dealers didn’t want, then reselling them from parking lots and front yards around the Seacoast with his phone number written on the windshield. A run-in with state police over that setup pushed him toward getting a proper dealership license instead.

His first real dealership came from a distressed property a bank was willing to finance since the previous owner hadn’t paid the mortgage in over a year. From there, he built a second location, Somersworth Auto Center, and in 1997 bought a Chevrolet dealership in Portsmouth from a longtime local dealer. But the 2008 financial crisis nearly broke the business, and DiLorenzo cut costs to the bone to keep it alive one day at a time.

That single dealership grew into Key Auto Group, a network of more than 20 dealerships and 11 collision centers across ten states. DiLorenzo has also put money into local causes, including a lead gift toward a UNH athletic complex upgrade. He carried that business record into politics, winning New Hampshire’s 1st Congressional District Republican primary after building a campaign around affordability and government spending. A remark about a legal pathway for non-criminal undocumented workers drew fire from primary rivals, though he’s said it simply reflects enforcing the law against violent offenders first.

Anthony DiLorenzo Public Profile

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