Pappas defeats Sununu in key U.S. Senate race

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(The Center Square) — Democrat Chris Pappas defeated Republican John E. Sununu in Tuesday's midterm elections to keep one of New Hampshire's two U.S. Senate seats blue for the next six years. 

Pappas has 60% of the vote to Sununu's 37% with 22% of the state's precincts reported, according to the Associated Press, which called the race for the Democrat shortly after the polls closed.

The contentious race has drawn national attention as a potential win for Republicans as they battle to hold onto control of the U.S. Senate in Tuesday's midterm elections, when much of Congress is up for grabs. 

A decision by three-term Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen to retire prompted a flurry of candidates seeking the seat that has been held by Democrats for two decades since Shaheen defeated Sununu in a 2008 'blue wave' that propelled Democrat Barack Obama into the presidency.

Sununu, 62, a member of one of New Hampshire's most storied political families, served in the U.S. Senate from 2003 to 2008 before he was defeated by Shaheen. He beat Scott Brown, a former Massachusetts senator, in the Sept. 8 Republican primary. 

His political comeback campaign was endorsed by second-term Republican President Donald Trump, and the Senate race is one of several pivotal to keeping the GOP's majority in the midterms.

On the campaign trail, Sununu argued that Pappas hasn't accomplished much in his tenure in Congress and has stressed his own experience in Washington politics in his pitch to the Granite State's notoriously independent voters. 

"Chris Pappas talks about all the things he wants to do and wants to accomplish, but he’s been there for eight years and he hasn’t gotten the job done," Sununu said during a debate with Pappas last week. "I’ll focus on the right issues. I’ll stand up to my party and the president when it’s right for New Hampshire, and I’ll get things done."

Pappas, 46, is serving his fourth term in Congress from the state’s 1st Congressional District. He jumped into the Senate race in April after Shaheen declined to seek reelection after three terms and defeated several challengers in the Democratic primary to win the nomination. Pappas will also be making history as the first openly gay male senator. 

"We can have the power in our hands to determine what comes next and fight for a fair economy and to lower costs and to confront the damage of the Trump Administration," Pappas told reporters in Manchester on Tuesday. "I'm hopeful that we're going to see a big turnout throughout the day today." 

New Hampshire's four-member congressional delegation is Democratic, but Republicans control the state government, and the state has a history of sending members of both parties to Washington. 

The state voted for Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election by a margin of 2.8 percentage points.

Pappas had raised more than $23 million against Sununu's $5.7 million in contributions, but Sununu's supporters outspent pro-Pappas groups by almost a 2-1 margin — with nearly $9 million for Democrats to $16.6 million for Republicans, according to campaign finance data. 

That prompted concerns by Pappas and some of his allies that the national party wasn't devoting enough attention to the key race.