Representative Chris Pappas, a Democrat, has won the Senate race in New Hampshire, according to The Associated Press, holding a seat for his party in a purple state that both parties viewed as critical. His victory makes him the first openly gay man in U.S. history to win a Senate seat.
Mr. Pappas defeated John E. Sununu, a former senator who lost re-election in 2008. A scion of a Republican political family whose father and brother served as governor, Mr. Sununu sought to present himself as distinct from President Trump’s MAGA movement. But he was unable to overcome the distaste for the president in New Hampshire, which has never backed Mr. Trump in a presidential election.
Mr. Pappas, 46, has represented the state’s swingy First Congressional District for four terms with an understated political style mirroring that of Senator Jeanne Shaheen, the retiring Democrat he is set to replace. (Ms. Shaheen beat Mr. Sununu in 2008.)
During his campaign, Mr. Pappas spoke little of the history he would make if he won, saying in interviews that he preferred to keep the focus on voters, not on himself. But gay rights advocates around the nation celebrated his victory as a sign of progress nearly four decades after Barney Frank of Massachusetts became the first gay member of Congress to come out voluntarily, in 1987.
“The fact is, I’m living a reality today that I didn’t think was possible when I was growing up just a few decades ago,” Mr. Pappas said in an interview during the campaign. “My state, our country, has come a long way.”
A son of Manchester, N.H., who came home after college to work at his family’s restaurant and run for local office, Mr. Pappas sought to nationalize the race, repeatedly reminding voters that Senate control could run through the state.
He called Mr. Sununu “another vote for Donald Trump’s failed, reckless agenda” and framed his opponent as a pillar of the status quo. He ignored the fact that it was he, not Mr. Sununu, who had spent much of the past 20 years in elected office.
The Sununu name is so prominent in the state that Mr. Pappas and his allies frequently joked that voters did not actually know which member of the family was on the ballot. Mr. Sununu’s charismatic brother, Chris, served as governor from 2017 to 2025; his father, John H. Sununu, was George H.W. Bush’s chief of staff and the New Hampshire governor from 1983 to 1989.
John E. Sununu, 62, worked aggressively to distance himself from Mr. Trump on issues like tariffs and the war with Iran, hoping to appeal to independent voters and moderate Republicans. He ran an ad saying he had “never even met the man.” And he framed his candidacy as being about what comes after Mr. Trump.
“In two years, the president will leave office,” Mr. Sununu said during a debate last month. “And my question is, where do we go next?”
The answer New Hampshire voters delivered was: Not back to a candidate many associated with the past.
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