With easy wins in the Sept. 8 New Hampshire party primaries, Democratic Congressman Chris Pappas and Republican former U.S. Sen. John Sununu are turning their full attention to a Nov. 3 general election matchup with major national ramifications.
Opinion polls indicate a close contest for a seat that could help determine which party controls the U.S. Senate.
Meanwhile, polling favors incumbent Republican N.H. Gov. Kelly Ayotte in her well-funded effort to turn back a challenge from Democratic former N.H. Executive Councilor Cinde Warmington.
In the state House and Senate, Republicans hope to maintain their majority.
Pappas and Sununu are competing for a seat that was put up for grabs when longtime Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen announced her planned retirement.
The state has not elected a Republican to the U.S. Senate since 2010, but an Aug. 27 University of New Hampshire poll of 1,846 likely voters showed the two men tied.
This race is important because the Senate is narrowly divided politically.
Democrats would need to retain control of Shaheen’s seat as well as 12 others while flipping four Republican-held seats, potentially in Maine, Texas, Alaska and Ohio, in order to gain a majority in the chamber.
In the governor’s race, Ayotte had only token opposition in the Republican primary. Warmington was the lone Democrat on the ballot.
An Aug. 27 UNH poll showed Ayotte with a 10-point lead over Warmington.
Ayotte also has a fundraising advantage.
A Sept. 2 campaign report for Ayotte shows she had collected $6.1 million in political contributions and spent $3.9 million on her campaign. Two-thirds of her contributions had come from businesses or organizations, including $2 million from the Republican Governors Association.
Warmington’s report for the same period shows total contributions of $936,971 and expenditures of $531,885. Individual contributors made up 99 percent of her receipts.
Ayotte said in an email Tuesday evening that she’s proud of the laws enacted in her tenure, including ones to reform the bail system, remove cellphones from classrooms and address the state’s housing shortage.
“We’ve kept New Hampshire moving in the right direction, but there’s more work to be done,” she said. “Our state is never more than one election away from becoming Massachusetts — from becoming something we’re not. I’m ready to protect what makes us unique and deliver an even brighter future for all of New Hampshire.”
On a CBS network news show Wednesday, Warmington said Granite Staters and others have seen major price inflation caused by President Donald Trump’s policies.
“This trade war is really crushing the people of our state, and we have a governor in Kelly Ayotte who is completely unwilling to stand up to Donald Trump and fight for the people of New Hampshire,” she said.
“As governor, I will stand up and fight for the people of New Hampshire, making sure that President Trump knows the damage that his tariffs are doing to the people of our state.”
During Ayotte’s first term, there was a 16-8 Republican majority in the N.H. Senate, and the GOP had a majority of about 40 seats in the 400-member House.
High property taxes are an issue in many legislative races.
Democratic-backed legislation would restore a state commitment to help with municipal employee pension costs, thereby reducing upward pressure on property taxes. Many Republicans, meanwhile, support a ballot measure, now the subject of litigation, that would institute school district property tax caps.
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