Democrat Chris Pappas will win New Hampshire Senate race, CNN projects
By Katherine Koretski
Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas will win New Hampshire’s open Senate seat, CNN’s Decision Desk projects, making history as the first out gay man to be elected to the chamber.
Pappas fended off a closely watched bid from GOP former Sen. John E. Sununu, who held the seat before being ousted by retiring Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen in 2008.
While New Hampshire has supported Democrats at the presidential level for the last two decades, the GOP saw opportunity in the state, where the governor’s office and state legislature are controlled by Republicans and where Sununu’s family has long dominated politics.
But Pappas capitalized on the tough national environment for Republicans, focusing his campaign on affordability concerns, expanding healthcare access and speaking out against the Trump administration.
He received high-level Democratic support in the final few weeks of the race, including an endorsement from former President Barack Obama and campaign appearances with former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock, California Gov. Gavin Newsom and former Vice President Kamala Harris.
Pappas also secured endorsements from Don Bolduc, a Trump-endorsed Republican nominee for US Senate in New Hampshire in 2022, as well as other local members of the GOP and independents.
Sununu, who served in the Senate from 2003 to 2009, walked a thin line between his GOP roots and distancing himself from Trump.
In 2024, he penned an op-ed calling Trump a “loser,” but the president ultimately backed Sununu in the primary earlier this year over Scott Brown, his former ambassador to New Zealand.
As Pappas sought to tie Sununu to the unpopular Trump administration, Sununu released an ad in the final weeks of the campaign stressing his separation.
“The way Chris Pappas tells it, I’m President Trump’s long-lost son. I’ve never even met the man,” Sununu says in the ad.
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