ICYMI: Kicking Off Pride Month, Pappas Highlights Granite State Roots, Focus on Affordability for Metro Weekly Cover Story 

MANCHESTER, N.H. — In case you missed it, Metro Weekly — one of the nation’s longest-running LGBTQ+ outlets — kicked off Pride Month with a cover story featuring Congressman Chris Pappas. The wide-ranging profile highlights Pappas’s New Hampshire roots, record of public service and bipartisan leadership, and his vision for tackling the challenges facing working families across the Granite State. 

Pappas is running to take on the tough fights against corporate special interests and the Trump Administration’s policies that are making it harder for New Hampshire families to get ahead. He has a proven track record of delivering for the Granite State and taking on big fights – from battling Big Pharma to lower drug prices to facing off with predatory companies that target veterans. If elected, Pappas would become the first out gay man to serve in the U.S. Senate. 

Read the full story here and view key excerpts below:

Metro Weekly: The Pappas Principle

By John Riley, 5/29/26

On Why He’s Running:

  • “For me, politics is about how you can make people’s lives better, how you can move us forward, how you can ensure that everyone can participate in our economy and that everyone in our society is treated fairly.”
  • “There have been a number of things I’ve been proud of during my time in Congress, but this is a time where we have to stand up, and reestablish checks and balances, and fix a broken system in a way where we can make good on the promise of America for everyone.”

On the Cost-of-Living Crisis Weighing Down Granite Staters:

  • “People are angry. They’re incredibly frustrated. They feel like the President and the leadership in Congress isn’t paying attention to what they’re experiencing in their own lives. And this isn’t something that’s just developed over the course of a few months. We’re talking about growing inequality, families that are doing everything right but just finding it harder and harder to get ahead and to provide for their families.”
  • “Whether that’s having health care, or finding housing, or putting their kids through college, it’s all become almost impossible. And now you’ve got a President that is openly thumbing his nose at the American people, saying affordability is a ‘hoax,’ that he doesn’t think about Americans’ financial situation. He’s taken us to war in a way that’s raising prices. So folks are talking about the price of gas, how hard it is to just afford the basics.”
  • “All those issues are things where we could be digging in and putting some wins on the board for working families and for the middle class. But right now, the focus in Washington has been on carrying the water for Donald Trump, on supporting his war, on supporting his tariffs, on gutting health care and food assistance so that the biggest corporations and the wealthiest people get tax breaks. That’s incredibly backward when it comes to the priorities that I’m hearing from voters in New Hampshire.”

On Making Government Work for People: 

  • “It’s really a fight for whether our democracy is going to stand the test of time at America’s 250th anniversary, whether we are going to be able to use government to make people’s lives better and create more economic fairness and deliver health care and protect our environment and stand up for personal freedoms. That’s all on the ballot this year.”
  • “There are a number of things that we could have done over the last year that we haven’t been able to find the support for in Congress, because [Republicans are] not willing to show the courage to stand up to the President. Families in my district paid $1,700 more last year for everything they need as a result of these tariffs, so rolling back policies that are actively raising costs would be a good place to start.”
  • “We’re likely up against [John Sununu] who’s part of the corporate special interest swamp in Washington, who was voted out of office by New Hampshire voters in 2008, because he was out of step on the issues and supporting an unpopular Republican president. Now he’s thrown his lot in with Donald Trump. I just think this is a moment where it is about how we can put the needs of our state first and have someone who’s going to go to bat for our communities and for our future.”

On His History Making Senate Campaign and Protecting Personal Freedoms:

  • “Our state motto is ‘Live Free or Die.’ I think people take freedom incredibly seriously and don’t want the government intervening in their private personal lives. Most people ascribe to a ‘live and let live’ philosophy, where they want their neighbors to be able to do what they want to do and not be bothered.”
  • “We’ve got a lot of work to do to continue to make sure that we’re standing up to discrimination, that we’re standing up to these really cynical political attacks, that we’re ensuring that everyone can be themselves and live their truth, and having a seat at the table will help us ensure that we’re making progress and changing hearts, minds, and laws and moving forward.”