ICYMI: On Face the Nation, Chris Pappas “Taking Nothing For Granted” In Race for New Hampshire’s Open U.S. Senate Seat

MANCHESTER, N.H. — In case you missed it, Congressman Chris Pappas joined Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan to discuss the stakes of New Hampshire’s majority-making U.S. Senate race and his plans to take on the Trump Administration and lower costs for Granite Staters.

Chris Pappas is running for Senate to lower costs for New Hampshire families and small businesses and create a freer, fairer future for Granite Staters. Trump-endorsed candidate John Sununu said he is running for Senate because this race is “important to President Trump’s agenda,” and he supports and has downplayed the worst parts of that agenda — including Trump’s war with Iran, Trump’s tariff taxes, and Trump’s cuts to health care.  

Watch the interview HERE and read more below:

On the Stakes of the Election and Fighting for New Hampshire

“We’re taking nothing for granted in this race because New Hampshire is a purple state, and we’re an all-election-day state where we don’t have early voting, generally, in New Hampshire. So, it’s focused on how we get to those independent swing voters, how we energize the base, how we reach out to Republicans over the next 23 days to win a tough race. Our Senate race in 2016 in New Hampshire was decided by 1,017 votes. I’m up against a candidate with a very famous political pedigree in New Hampshire. He’s been a U.S. senator before, but this isn’t about going back to the failed politicians with failed ideas from the past. It’s about looking ahead to the future, how we muster the courage to stand up to a reckless administration that’s making life more expensive, how we fight to lower costs and how we connect with everyday Granite Staters about the kind of future we can build together.”

On John Sununu’s Unwavering Support for the Trump Agenda

“John Sununu has said it out loud. He said that this race is important to Donald Trump’s agenda and to protect the gains that Donald Trump has made for the American people. Now I don’t know what those gains are because if you’re paying $1,000 bucks to fill up your home heating oil tank, or $6.50 to put diesel in your car for every gallon, or housing costs that are through the roof, you’re not feeling like you’re winning right now. So the fact is, Donald Trump has said this — ‘pretend I’m on the ballot.’ He’s on the ballot through candidates like John Sununu, who will maintain his majority in the U.S. Senate, will make it harder for us to hold this administration to account, to address the culture of corruption in Washington and fight to lower costs for New Hampshire families. So John Sununu stands with Trump in this campaign. He’s been supporting his agenda. The fact is, the last time he was in office, he stood with George W. Bush for forever wars, privatizing Social Security, and tax cuts for the rich. That didn’t work for New Hampshire then, and he doesn’t represent the kind of future we need to lower costs and get this economy working for everyone.”

On Prioritizing Affordability in a New Congress

“We have to focus like a laser on the economic challenges that people are living in right now. We have to put some wins on the board for workers and the middle class. […] We can do that by building on the success of the housing bill that we passed to invest in the affordable housing stock that we need, to work to end this war and lower energy prices, to restore the cuts to health care that are kicking thousands of Granite Staters off of their health insurance and making it harder for people to access the care that they need. So, we do have to focus with everything we’ve got on the affordability agenda — that starts in January, and I think that’s both a short, medium, and long-term strategy to take on the way this economy has been rigged and deliver results for middle-class families and workers.”

On the Sununu-backed Health Care Cuts Devastating New Hampshire

“17,000 folks in my state have dropped their insurance because of the failure to extend the ACA premium subsidies, and we’re looking at a huge cut with respect to Medicaid that’s going to devastate our hospitals, health centers, and nursing homes — cynically, timed to kick in just after this election. So, it’s a focus both on making the Affordable Care Act work, taking the insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies to account to lower prices, and making sure we’re backstopping these cuts to Medicaid so that rural healthcare, healthcare for people in underserved areas doesn’t get disrupted and destroyed by these MAGA cuts that were part of the Big Beautiful Bill last year.”

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