New Hampshire held primary elections Tuesday, setting up another of those must-win Senate races for Democrats, who need to flip five seats in November to take control of the Senate. (The “five” is for “Fetterman.”) Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas beat a DSA lady and Republican former Sen. John E. Sununu beat former Sen. (but not from New Hampshire) Scott Brown for the chance to replace Sen. and former Gov. Jeanne Shaheen (D), who’s retiring after serving three terms.
Trivia Fun: Shaheen was first elected to the Senate in 2008 when she defeated the one-term incumbent, the very same John E. Sununu who’s now trying to succeed her. What’s more, Sununu won his single Senate term in 2002 in a race against Shaheen, who had just completed a third term as governor.
Not that New Hampshire politics are insular or anything.
Say, did we mention that John E. Sununu is the son of John H. Sununu, who was also governor of New Hampshire from 1983 to 1989, then was George HW Bush’s chief of staff? Or that John H. Sununu’s other son-nu-nu, Chris Sununu, (the newnu nominee’s younger brother) was also New Hampshire’s governor from 2017 until last year?
Forget it, Jake. It’s Sununu Hampshire, nu?
Also too, is it funny that the state’s midterm primaries are among the last in the nation? We don’t really know, just something that occurred to us, if only for the chance to once again say “Dixville Notch,” which is where Hasan Piker will now live.
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We have to confess to not knowing much about Rep. Pappas, the Democratic nominee, because as far as we can tell he’s been one of those pleasantly noncontroversial public servant types who may not make a lot of noise on cable TV but gets the job done.
He’s the first openly LGBTQ+ person to represent the Granite State in Congress, and has kept his nose clean enough that his sole appearance in Wonkette was in a Nice Time story about the passage of the Respect for Marriage Act in 2022, which Pappas co-sponsored. That was the law that formally repealed the already-unconstitutional “Defense of Marriage Act” and strengthened federal protections for all married couples (and their benefits and spousal rights), just in case the Supreme Court were to decide to undo Obergefell and bigot states tried to do bigot stuff.
Pappas said at the time that he was preparing to marry “the love of [his] life” soon (and he did; Pappas and Vann Bentley married in 2023) adding that he found it “unthinkable” that somewhere down the road, his marriage might no longer be recognized in all states.
In the Democratic primary, Pappas won by more than 30 points against Dr. Karishma Manzur, a medical scientist who’s pretty cool herself; she pledged to bring science and fact-based medicine back to America after its banishment by Donald Trump and supported Medicare for All. Manzur is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, so get ready for simplistic editorials proclaiming that progressives are done forever, at least until some other DSA person does well. Even without spending much on the campaign, Manzur managed to get about a third of the vote, which was apparently enough for her to decide against immediately throwing her support behind Pappas until she can meet with him to talk policy. In a statement, Manzur said she plans to meet with Pappas soon “to discuss how he can earn my support and help deliver for working families in New Hampshire,” which seems like a canny strategy, or else it seems like she’s being a dick.
On the Republican side, Sununu won easily over Scott Brown, the former one-term senator for Massachusetts, who will now presumably pack his carpetbag in hopes of making a comeback in some other New England state.
In his victory speech, Pappas emphasized that he is on Team Fight against Donald Trump, saying that voters have had enough of all the lying and gaslighting. He noted that “Everywhere I go, I hear the same thing: Life is too damn expensive,” and mocked Trump and his goddamn tariffs and stupid expensive war. “Donald Trump thinks all of this is just a hoax. In fact, he says we’re living in a golden age. Well, I think he’s living on another planet, because does this feel like a golden age to you?”
As NPR noted, Trump’s tariffs have been particularly hard on New Hampshire businesses, who do a lot of trade with Canada, or used to. State tourism officials have also reported that cross-border tourism is down sharply over the summer, as Canadians are simply staying home and spending their funny plastic money there, eh?
Pappas also positioned himself as the candidate with new ideas, arguing that “While New Hampshire families are struggling to make ends meet, John Sununu has thrown his lot in with Donald Trump and supports the policies that cater to big corporations and billionaires while they make life harder for Granite Staters.” He sought to blunt the potential name-recognition advantage Sununu might have by saying “this is not the time to turn it back to a failed politician from the past.”
His campaign underlined the point with new ads painting Sununu as “a sequel we can't afford.” It’s pretty good, as scary-voice negative ads go, reminding voters that they know this Sununu guy from decades ago, and he’s still bad sununews.
Republicans have a voter registration advantage in New Hampshire, but Democrats may have an enthusiasm advantage this year, with much higher turnout for Tuesday’s primary than Republicans had. So far, the polls have been very close, with two recent polls putting Sununu narrowly ahead of Pappas, but within the polls’ margin of error.
New Hampshire’s Senate race may not be getting the attention that other more high-profile contests are getting this year, but it’s far from being safely in the D column. Sununu has tried to rhetorically distance himself a little from Trump, but has Dear Leader’s endorsement and plenty of GOP money. Pappas has been warning that Democrats “can’t afford to toss aside” the New Hampshire contest, and points out that Dems have “got to hold this race in order for the rest of the math to work for Democrats.”
So no-no to Sununu, and if you can, consider sending a few Ameros to Pappas right here. Also, since we couldn’t find a place to mention it elsewhere, we’ll just add that his grandfather is credited with having invented “chicken tenders” at the family’s restaurant in Manchester, so we hope you’ll either approve of that or be willing to overlook it.
[NBC News / WaPo (gift link) / Politico / NYT (gift link)]
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You Snus, you lose.
"We have to confess to not knowing much about Rep. Pappas, the Democratic nominee, because as far as we can tell he’s been one of those pleasantly noncontroversial public servant types who may not make a lot of noise on cable TV but gets the job done."
Maybe if there were more public servants like Rep. Pappas, we could have nice things.