Chris Pappas wins New Hampshire Senate seat, becomes first openly gay man elected to the chamber

Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas won New Hampshire's open U.S. Senate seat on Tuesday, defeating former Republican Sen. John E. Sununu in a contest both parties had treated as one of the most competitive of the midterm cycle. The Associated Press called the race at 8:22 p.m., according to reporting in The Boston Globe, with Sununu conceding to supporters gathered in Manchester within minutes of the call.

The win keeps the seat in Democratic hands. It was vacated by Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, who chose not to seek a fourth term after 18 years in office. Pappas, who has represented New Hampshire's 1st Congressional District in the House since 2019 and sits on the Veterans' Affairs and Transportation and Infrastructure committees, will move from the House to the Senate when the new Congress convenes in January.

Pappas's path to the Senate

Pappas, a Manchester native and Harvard College graduate, built his political career gradually before reaching Washington. He served two terms in the New Hampshire House starting in 2003, was elected Hillsborough County treasurer in 2007, and in 2012 won a seat on the state's Executive Council, becoming the first openly gay person elected to that body; he was reelected to the council in 2014 and 2016. He first won the 1st District House seat in 2018, defeating Republican Eddie Edwards by roughly nine points, and was reelected three times, including a 54%-to-45% win in 2024. Between elected offices, he helped run his family's Puritan Backroom restaurant in Manchester, a business more than a century old — the same restaurant where Sununu would concede to him on Tuesday night.

A race with a historical echo

The contest carried an unusual symmetry. Sununu, who served one term in the Senate from 2003 to 2009, lost that seat to Shaheen in 2008. His bid to return, 18 years later, would have set a record for the longest gap between a senator's defeat and a comeback win. Instead, the seat he once held stayed with the party that beat him the first time, this time with Pappas as its nominee. In the years between his Senate terms, Sununu — who holds engineering degrees from MIT and an MBA from Harvard — built a career in business and media: he joined the board of medical-device maker Boston Scientific, according to a company announcement of his election as a director, took on additional corporate board seats, worked as an outside adviser to the lobbying and law firm Akin Gump, and wrote opinion columns for The Boston Globe.

Sununu, the son and brother of former New Hampshire governors, told supporters at the Puritan Backroom restaurant in Manchester that he had already called Pappas to congratulate him. He added:

"This has been an incredible campaign, but it is not our night."

Pappas's win also carries a milestone cited repeatedly by LGBTQ advocacy groups during the campaign: he becomes the first openly gay man elected to the U.S. Senate. The Human Rights Campaign noted the distinction after his September primary win, and the LGBTQ+ Victory Fund made the same point when it endorsed his candidacy in 2025. Sen. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin remains the only other openly LGBTQ candidate elected outright to a Senate seat; she won her race in 2012 by a comparatively comfortable margin, about 51.4% to 45.9% over former Gov. Tommy Thompson.

Money and the margin

Early returns, reported by NBC News with roughly a fifth of the statewide vote counted shortly after polls closed, showed Pappas leading by a wide margin, with a smaller share going to independent candidate Edmond Laplante. Those figures were partial, but AP's call came quickly enough that both campaigns treated the outcome as settled well before midnight.

The race was also one of the costlier Senate contests of the cycle. Pappas's principal campaign committee, Chris Pappas For Senate, reported total receipts of roughly $23.7 million and disbursements of about $22.1 million for the 2025–2026 cycle, according to filings with the Federal Election Commission, leaving close to $2 million on hand as of mid-October. Outside groups, including the Senate Leadership Fund, had committed millions of dollars in late advertising on Sununu's behalf, reflecting how seriously national Republicans treated the pickup opportunity in a state President Trump lost narrowly in 2024.

A battleground that stayed blue

New Hampshire has been trending competitive rather than reliably Democratic. Kamala Harris carried the state by about three percentage points in 2024, and the Cook Political Report had rated the Senate race only "lean Democratic" heading into Election Day, reflecting Sununu's name recognition and his effort to distance himself from some of President Trump's more unpopular positions, including his tariff policy and confrontation with Iran. University of New Hampshire polling in late August had even shown Sununu narrowly ahead.

Pappas's move up the ballot also reshapes New Hampshire's congressional delegation. His departure from the 1st District seat, which he has held since 2018 and in which no Republican has won a federal race since 2014, opened a House contest between Democrat Stefany Shaheen — the outgoing senator's daughter and a former Portsmouth city councilor — and Republican businessman Anthony DiLorenzo, who had the president's endorsement. New Hampshire's governor's race was also unresolved as of Tuesday night: early returns showed Democratic challenger Cinde Warmington narrowly ahead of Republican incumbent Kelly Ayotte, 50.8% to 47.0% with about a quarter of the expected vote counted, a reversal of pre-election polling that had shown Ayotte with a mid-single-digit lead.

What comes next

Pappas is expected to be sworn in to the Senate in January, when the new Congress begins. His elevation adds one seat to the Democratic side of a chamber Republicans currently control, though New Hampshire's result was just one of many Senate races decided Tuesday night as both parties fought over narrow margins in the chamber. Attention in the state now shifts to the unresolved races further down the ballot, including the House and governor's contests, and to whether Pappas's successor in the 1st District will continue the Democratic hold Shaheen's family has had on New Hampshire's federal delegation for nearly two decades.