New Hampshire voters choose nominees for Congress and governor on September 8

New Hampshire voters chose nominees for Congress, governor, and the 424-seat state Legislature on Tuesday, September 8, according to PBS NewsHour reporting.

The election centered on a newly competitive Senate race. Three-term Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen announced she would not seek reelection, according to PBS NewsHour, leaving an open seat that drew five Democratic and eight Republican candidates.

In the Democratic primary, Rep. Chris Pappas, who represents the 1st Congressional District, gave up his House seat to run for Senate. According to PBS NewsHour, Pappas raised twice as much money as former U.S. senators John E. Sununu and Scott Brown combined, and "dwarfed his Democratic primary opponents." He held a wide lead in polls, though recently lost some ground to Karishma Manzur, described by PBS as a scientist and democratic socialist.

Sununu and Brown, both former senators, entered the Republican primary after each had previously lost to Shaheen. Per PBS NewsHour, Sununu spent six years in the U.S. House and one term in the Senate before being ousted by Shaheen in 2008. Brown previously represented Massachusetts, won a special election in 2010 after the death of Sen. Ted Kennedy, lost in 2012, unsuccessfully challenged Shaheen in 2014, and served as ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa during President Donald Trump's first term. According to PBS NewsHour, Sununu has backing from Trump, despite having called him "a loser" in 2024.

In the race for Pappas' vacated 1st Congressional District seat, the Democratic field included Stefany Shaheen, the senator's daughter, who is a former city councilor in Portsmouth and founded a business to help people with chronic medical conditions after one of her daughters was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, per PBS NewsHour. Also running was Maura Sullivan, a former Marine and Iraq War veteran who served as an assistant secretary at the Department of Veterans Affairs under President Barack Obama. According to PBS NewsHour, Sullivan is vice chair of the New Hampshire Democratic Party and ran for the 1st District seat in 2018, losing to Pappas in an 11-candidate primary.

The Republican field for the 1st District included Anthony DiLorenzo, a political newcomer who owns a chain of car dealerships and has been endorsed by Trump, and Hollie Noveletsky, described by PBS as a veteran and nurse practitioner who runs a steel fabrication company and ran for the same seat two years ago.

In the 2nd District, first-term Democratic incumbent Rep. Maggie Goodlander faced a primary challenge from Paige Beachemin, a progressive state lawmaker and nurse, per PBS NewsHour. The four-person Republican primary field included Lily Tang Williams, who PBS reports was the nominee two years ago and is making her third attempt at the seat.

Republican Gov. Kelly Ayotte sought a second two-year term, facing two little-known opponents in her primary, according to PBS NewsHour. Cinde Warmington, a healthcare attorney, ran unopposed for the Democratic nomination for governor.

According to PBS NewsHour, Republicans hold a roughly 40-vote majority in the 400-member House and outnumber Democrats in the state Senate 16-8. The outlet reports that New Hampshire, accustomed to going first in presidential primaries, is among the last states to hold state-level primaries, leaving winners just eight weeks to campaign before the November 3 general election. PBS NewsHour notes that legislation passed this year moves future state primaries to the second Tuesday in June.