ICYMI: The Race to a Democratic Senate Majority Runs Through New Hampshire

MANCHESTER, NH — In case you missed it, MassLive highlighted what Granite Staters already know: the path to a Democratic Senate majority runs straight through New Hampshire — and Chris Pappas is at the center of it.

With control of the Senate on the line, New Hampshire is one of the most competitive and consequential battlegrounds in the country. Chris Pappas is taking on corporate greed, fighting to lower costs for Granite Staters, and working across the aisle to support our small businesses, expand resources for our veterans, and strengthen New Hampshire’s economy. John Sununu and Scott Brown would be a rubber stamp for Donald Trump’s disastrous agenda, which has driven up costs, threatened reproductive freedom, and put Social Security and Medicare at risk.

Granite Staters don’t just see Pappas’s record — they feel it. As he takes on the affordability crisis in Washington, voters are responding with strong support. Newly released Q1 fundraising reports show Pappas raised more than double his GOP opponents combined, a clear sign of the momentum behind his campaign.

The bottom line: if Democrats are going to flip the Senate, it will happen by winning in New Hampshire.

Read more:

MassLive: The Democrats’ road to a US Senate majority runs through New England. Why that matters

By John L. Micek

  • A funny thing happened on the way to the 2026 midterms: The U.S. Senate, which seemed locked in for Republicans, suddenly became as fluid as the Red Sox’s playoff chances.
  • A confluence of factors — including an affordability crisis that just won’t go away and the ongoing unpopularity of President Donald Trump — is making already edgy voters even more inclined to follow a midterm tradition of punishing the party in power
  • A nationwide — and bipartisan — push to redraw congressional districts ahead of the November midterms has reinforced the high stakes of this year’s U.S. House contests.
  • With those winds at their backs, Democrats are also now competitive in key U.S. Senate contests.
  • “There’s a storm coming,” Republican consultant Matt Rexroad told MS NOW’s Ebony Davis. “This is the time to hold what you’ve got, get good candidates and just try to hold on to the seats we have.”
  • A Democratic win in either chamber would effectively paralyze Trump’s legislative agenda for the balance of his second term. Democrats also have vowed to thoroughly investigate the Republican White House if they retake control of Capitol Hill in November. Impeachments could well follow.
  • That tension is particularly on show in New England, where Senate races in New Hampshire and Maine are expected to play a central role in determining who controls the 100-member chamber.
  • […]
  • Across the border in New Hampshire, the race is on for the seat being vacated by veteran Democratic U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, who announced her retirement last year.
  • Polling in both states reveals tight general-election contests. The money is flowing, and the national media attention has followed.
  • It wasn’t supposed to be this way.
  • Republicans headed into the midterm cycle with the math on their side. The GOP currently holds a seemingly unassailable 53-47 majority.
  • The president’s sagging approval ratings, driven by voters’ concerns about the economy and their disdain for an ongoing Iran War, where justifications have been slender at best, are a drag on GOP candidates across the board.
  • Trump has singlehandedly “dismantled our country, dismantled its institutions and brought economic pain to every single American living in this country,” Mary Anne Marsh, a veteran Democratic analyst from Boston, said.
  • “He’s broken every promise and kept not one. And everyone finally realizes who Donald Trump really is and that they, the people of this country, are not only secondary to him, they’re not even on his mind,” Marsh said.
  • Indeed, Trump’s approvals are underwater in all six New England states, according to a Newsweek analysis of nationwide polling data.
  • […], Trump’s net approval rating stands at […] -31 in New Hampshire, that same analysis shows.
  • And that has local Republicans jumpy — particularly when it comes to Iran, where the chances of tragedy multiply the longer the conflict drags on.
  • And if that happens, they said, voters will blame only one person — Trump.
  • […]

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