{"id":7820,"date":"2025-04-03T21:00:04","date_gmt":"2025-04-03T21:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/demo5.dedicatedhost247.com\/zexo\/chris-pappas-jumps-into-2026-senate-race-in-new-hampshire\/"},"modified":"2025-04-03T21:00:04","modified_gmt":"2025-04-03T21:00:04","slug":"chris-pappas-jumps-into-2026-senate-race-in-new-hampshire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/demo5.dedicatedhost247.com\/zexo\/chris-pappas-jumps-into-2026-senate-race-in-new-hampshire\/","title":{"rendered":"Chris Pappas Jumps Into 2026 Senate Race in New Hampshire"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-0\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Representative Chris Pappas, a fourth-term New Hampshire Democrat, announced on Thursday that he would run for the Senate seat being vacated by <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/03\/12\/us\/politics\/jeanne-shaheen-new-hampshire-senate-2026.html\" title=\"\">the retirement of Senator Jeanne Shaheen<\/a>, a fellow Democrat.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Pappas, 44, is the first major candidate to enter the 2026 race. He began his campaign with <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=59ntnb7JPSY\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">a video that shows him being driven around New Hampshire<\/a> and that casts him as a fighter ready to take on President Trump and Republicans \u2014 a nod, perhaps, to Democrats\u2019 recent backlash against concessions made by Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the minority leader.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Voters, Mr. Pappas says in the video, \u201cwant someone who shows up, someone who listens and someone who isn\u2019t afraid to take on the big fights \u2014 and, more importantly today, who knows how to win them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">His comments also represented a not-very-subtle shot at congressional Republicans, most of whom have avoided holding public meetings with constituents to discuss and defend the Trump administration\u2019s actions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-1\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">While New Hampshire elections are often close and a contest for an open Senate seat is likely to be an expensive and dogged affair, the race is not considered one of the most competitive in 2026. Democrats have held both of the state\u2019s Senate seats since 2017. The party would need to flip four Republican-held seats in 2026 to take back control of the chamber.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Other politicians who have publicly expressed interest in running for the New Hampshire seat include <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wmur.com\/article\/closeup-maggie-goodlanderus-senate-run-jeanne-shaheen\/64199510\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Representative Maggie Goodlander<\/a>, a first-term Democrat who is the state\u2019s other member of Congress; former Gov. Chris Sununu, a Republican who served for eight years before declining to seek re-election last year; and Scott Brown, a Republican former Massachusetts senator who ran unsuccessfully for a New Hampshire Senate seat in 2014.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In his announcement video, Mr. Pappas faintly echoes some of the arguments long made by a next-door neighbor, Senator Bernie Sanders, independent of Vermont.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cPeople, regardless of their politics, have a sense that the system is not working, that there are special interests and big corporations that have outsized influence in our political system,\u201d Mr. Pappas says. \u201cEverywhere we go, we hear it: veterans, parents, small-business owners, people who have done everything right asking, \u2018Why does it feel like the system\u2019s rigged?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Such commentary explained a bit about the political moment Democrats find themselves in.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Having been swept out of power last year as voters again demanded change, Democratic candidates for office in 2026 and beyond are branding themselves as agents of the next round of changes. This time, they are entertaining discussions of systemic shake-ups that were politically untenable for President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Vice President Kamala Harris to campaign on last year.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-2\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Should Mr. Pappas win a promotion to the Senate, he would become the chamber\u2019s first openly gay male senator. The only mention of this potential bit of history comes at the conclusion of the announcement video, which shows Mr. Pappas and his husband sitting on a couch holding hands.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Representative Chris Pappas, a fourth-term New Hampshire Democrat, announced on Thursday that he would run for the Senate seat being vacated by the retirement of Senator Jeanne Shaheen, a fellow Democrat. Mr. Pappas, 44, is the first major candidate to enter the 2026 race. He began his campaign with a video that shows him being [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7821,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[4538,6874,2311,11797,2758,1341],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/04\/03\/multimedia\/03pol-pappas-topart-kzpq\/03pol-pappas-topart-kzpq-facebookJumbo.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo5.dedicatedhost247.com\/zexo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7820"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo5.dedicatedhost247.com\/zexo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo5.dedicatedhost247.com\/zexo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo5.dedicatedhost247.com\/zexo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo5.dedicatedhost247.com\/zexo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/demo5.dedicatedhost247.com\/zexo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7820\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo5.dedicatedhost247.com\/zexo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo5.dedicatedhost247.com\/zexo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo5.dedicatedhost247.com\/zexo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo5.dedicatedhost247.com\/zexo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}