Pappas Beats Sununu in New Hampshire, Keeping Senate Seat Democratic
Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas defeated former GOP Sen. John E. Sununu, holding a seat Democrats needed and becoming the first openly gay man elected to the Senate.
Chris Pappas, a Democratic congressman from New Hampshire, won the state’s open US Senate seat on Tuesday, defeating John E. Sununu, a former Republican senator who was trying to return to Washington after nearly two decades away. The result keeps in Democratic hands a seat the party could not afford to lose in its push to win back the Senate majority. It also makes Pappas the first openly gay man elected to the chamber.
The Associated Press called the race at 8:20 p.m. Eastern time with only about 20% of votes counted, the Valley News reported. Sununu had conceded minutes earlier, at about 8:15 p.m., according to the Concord Monitor. CBS News also projected Pappas as the winner.
What happened
Early returns showed Pappas with a commanding lead. The Valley News put his share at 60.6% of the vote at the time of the AP call, while the Concord Monitor described him as holding about 60% with less than a quarter of ballots tallied. Final totals were not yet available on Tuesday night, and the margin could change as more votes are counted.
Pappas celebrated at the Puritan Backroom, his family’s restaurant in Manchester, New Hampshire’s largest city. The Concord Monitor reported that he called the result “a victory for team New Hampshire over the broken status quo” and told supporters he was “ready to fight with everything I’ve got.”
Across town, Sununu addressed roughly 100 supporters at the McIntyre Ski Area. “It is not our night,” he said, according to the Monitor.
Pappas, 46, rarely discussed his sexual orientation during the campaign and did not mention the milestone in his victory speech, the Concord Monitor noted.
Why it matters
The seat opened when Jeanne Shaheen, New Hampshire’s senior Democratic senator, decided to retire. Pappas was widely seen as her political heir. Republicans viewed the race as one of their few realistic chances to pick up a Democratic-held seat this cycle, CBS News reported.
The Valley News described the contest as one of seven races considered key to control of the Senate. To take the chamber from Republicans, Democrats needed to hold every seat they already had and gain at least four more. A loss in New Hampshire would have made that math significantly harder.
CBS News said Republican Senate candidates across the country faced a difficult environment shaped by the unpopular war with Iran and high gas and diesel prices, and that Sununu’s efforts to put distance between himself and President Donald Trump were not enough to overcome those headwinds. Democratic voters interviewed by the Concord Monitor cited soaring gas prices, affordability and political divisiveness as reasons for their choices.
The candidates and the campaign
Pappas has represented New Hampshire in the US House since 2019 and is serving his fourth term there. Before that he served on the state’s Executive Council, a five-member elected body that reviews state contracts and appointments, and spent four years in the New Hampshire House of Representatives. In Congress he belongs to the Problem Solvers Caucus, a bipartisan group of House members, and he ran as an independent voice for the state, according to CBS News.
His campaign focused on:
- lowering everyday costs for families;
- addressing New Hampshire’s housing shortage;
- rooting out what he described as corporate and political corruption.
Sununu, 62, comes from one of the state’s best-known political families. His father, John H. Sununu, and his brother, Chris Sununu, both served as governor. He represented New Hampshire in the US House from 1997 to 2003 and in the Senate from 2003 until 2008, when he lost his seat to Shaheen. He has since worked in the private sector and served on corporate boards.
In his comeback bid, Sununu campaigned on privacy rights and on cutting taxes and regulations, and he criticized what he called career politicians. He also worked to separate himself from Trump. In a late ad cited by CBS News, he said Pappas was portraying him as Trump’s “long-lost son” and insisted he had “never even met the man,” pledging to oppose the president’s policies when they hurt New Hampshire.
The race was marked by what the Valley News called expensive and prolific attack ads from both sides. Polls in the final days had shown Pappas ahead, with one survey cited by the paper finding 54% of respondents backing him. Not every voter was won over: the Concord Monitor spoke with a Republican-leaning independent who called Pappas too liberal and questioned how his proposals would be paid for.
What comes next
Pappas will take office in January, when the new Congress is sworn in. His victory extends a long streak for New Hampshire Democrats in federal races. The state has not elected a Republican to Congress since 2010 and has voted for the Democratic presidential candidate in every election since 2004, even as Republicans have dominated state government and held the governor’s office since 2017.
Whether Democrats win the Senate majority now depends on results in several other competitive races that were still being counted on Tuesday night.
