Former Vice President Kamala Harris lent her support to Rep. Chris Pappas (D-NH) on Monday as he prepares to face other Democratic primary challengers running for an open Senate seat in New Hampshire.
“@KamalaHarris has stood tall for democracy and is committed to making this country fairer and freer for all,” Pappas wrote on X. “She knows the stakes couldn’t be higher here in New Hampshire, and I’m proud to have her on Team Pappas.”
The high-profile endorsement arrived eight days before New Hampshire’s Senate primary elections.
Pappas, considered the best-known candidate in the Democratic primary, has received numerous endorsements from labor unions and abortion-rights groups in the Granite State. Now, he is adding Harris to that list.
The New Hampshire Senate race is the latest contest to receive an endorsement from the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee. Besides Pappas, Harris is also backing Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) in his reelection bid and Michigan Senate Democratic nominee Abdul el Sayed.
Other Democratic candidates, however, are intentionally distancing themselves from the former vice president.
Mary Peltola, who is running for the Senate in Alaska, recently rejected an unsolicited fundraising email sent by Harris’s Fight for the People PAC. Last week, Josh Turek, who is running for the Senate in Iowa, said Harris should not be campaigning for him. Iowa Democratic gubernatorial candidate Rob Sand made a similar statement to Turek.
Harris has frequently waded into politics during the midterm elections as she considers mounting a 2028 presidential campaign.
Her endorsement of Pappas is expected to carry some weight in New Hampshire, given that she won the state by nearly 3 points over President Donald Trump in 2024.
In New Hampshire’s Sept. 8 primary, Pappas will face a challenge from socialist Karishma Manzur for the party’s nomination. Pappas leads the rest of the primary field, with Manzur 13 points behind him in a recent poll from the University of New Hampshire.
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On the Republican side, Scott Brown and John Sununu are among the top candidates. Brown once represented Massachusetts in the Senate before moving to New Hampshire, where he ran against Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) in 2014. Sununu, who is endorsed by Trump, previously served in the New Hampshire Senate.
Shaheen is retiring at the end of her third term early next year, leaving her seat open for the first time since 2009.