Rep. Chris Pappas will face former Sen. John E. Sununu in New Hampshire Senate race, CNN projects

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Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas will face Republican former Sen. John E. Sununu in the race for New Hampshire’s open Senate seat, CNN’s Decision Desk projects.

The battle for retiring Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen’s seat could prove critical to her party’s hopes of flipping the chamber in November.

Tuesday’s contests will set several key midterm matchups that could test the status quo in New Hampshire, which has largely elected Republicans in the state government while sending Democrats to the US Senate and House of Representatives in recent years.

The Republican Senate race tested whether past criticism of President Donald Trump still carries a price in a GOP primary.

Sununu, who held the seat from 2003 to 2009 and belongs to the state’s most established Republican family, defeated Scott Brown, the former Massachusetts senator and Trump ambassador who ran as an outsider vowing to break up a political dynasty.

While Sununu described Trump as a “loser” in an op-ed backing Nikki Haley’s 2024 presidential campaign and said that he wouldn’t have launched the war in Iran , he still managed to secure Trump’s endorsement along with support from the national Republican establishment.

He advances to a general election for the seat he lost to outgoing Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen in 2008.

On the Democratic side, Pappas, a four-term congressman from a battleground House district, defeated Karishma Manzur, a democratic socialist who sought to score the latest upset for an ascendent anti-establishment left-wing.

Echoing Democratic primaries across the country this year that have wrestled with the issue of US support for Israel amid the devastation in Gaza, Pappas received criticism from his rival over his voting record in Congress and his relationship with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

But Pappas prevailed in the contentious race with a focus on affordability concerns, a vocal defense of safety-net programs, and a strong electoral track record, while also benefiting from about $4.8 million in outside spending, according to AdImpact data.

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CNN 决策台预测，民主党众议员克里斯·帕帕斯将与共和党前参议员约翰·E·苏努努角逐新罕布什尔州空缺的参议院席位。

民主党参议员珍妮·沙欣即将退休，争夺她的席位可能对民主党在11月能否赢得参议院的控制权至关重要。

周二的选举将决定几场关键的中期选举对决，这些对决可能会考验新罕布什尔州的现状。近年来，新罕布什尔州在州政府中大多选举共和党人，而在美国参议院和众议院则大多选举民主党人。

共和党参议员竞选检验了过去对唐纳德·特朗普总统的批评是否仍然会在共和党初选中付出代价。

曾于 2003 年至 2009 年担任该席位的苏努努，出身于该州最老牌的共和党家族，击败了前马萨诸塞州参议员、特朗普大使斯科特·布朗。布朗以局外人的身份参选，誓言要打破一个政治王朝。

尽管苏努努在一篇支持妮基·黑莉 2024 年总统竞选的专栏文章中称特朗普为“失败者”，并表示他不会发动对伊朗的战争，但他仍然获得了特朗普的认可以及共和党建制派的支持。

他将参加大选，争夺他在 2008 年输给即将卸任的民主党参议员珍妮·沙欣的席位。

在民主党方面，来自摇摆选区的四届国会议员帕帕斯击败了民主社会主义者卡里什玛·曼祖尔，后者试图为日益崛起的反建制左翼势力赢得最新的胜利。

今年，全国各地的民主党初选都在讨论美国在加沙遭受重创之际对以色列的支持问题，帕帕斯也因此受到竞争对手的批评，批评内容涉及他在国会的投票记录以及他与美国以色列公共事务委员会的关系。

但帕帕斯凭借对经济承受能力问题的关注、对社会保障计划的积极捍卫以及强大的选举记录，在竞争激烈的竞选中胜出，同时根据 AdImpact 的数据，他还受益于约 480 万美元的外部支出。