The candidates vying for the seat of retiring Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) spent their first debate trying to convince voters they would be independent voices for New Hampshire, whether their party controls Washington or not.
John E. Sununu, a Republican who served a single term in the Senate nearly two decades ago, kept Donald Trump at arm’s length throughout the debate, telling viewers that he’s repeatedly “stood up” to the president and opposed his candidacies in 2016 and 2024.
“I’ve never hesitated to let the public and the president know where I stand,” Sununu said.
Rep. Chris Pappas (D-NH), the Democratic nominee for Senate, similarly distanced himself from former President Joe Biden on the border while all but calling Biden’s 2024 reelection campaign a mistake.
“I wish there was another candidate who had stepped to the fore, who either could have challenged Joe Biden, or that there were people around him that could have pushed him out of the race,” Pappas said.
The Tuesday morning debate covered a range of topics, from data centers to foreign policy to the ballooning national debt, but repeatedly came back to their tenures in Washington and whether they could be trusted to break with their party on important votes.
Sununu has not served in Congress since he lost to Shaheen in 2008, a blue wave year. And he used that absence to take more of an outsider lane.
“He’s been there for eight years – he’s part of the problem,” Sununu said of Pappas. “If you really want different results, if you really want a different path, we’ve got to change the players in Washington, and that’s why I’m running for Senate.”
Pappas, in turn, pointed out that Trump endorsed Sununu in New Hampshire’s GOP primary and argued that the outside spending by Republicans in New Hampshire comes with strings attached.
“A vote for him is a vote to maintain Donald Trump’s control of the United States Senate,” Pappas said.
The barbs underscore the extent to which the race has become a referendum on Washington after years of inflation under Biden and now Trump. Sununu criticized Pappas for not supporting a primary challenger before Biden’s last-minute exit from the 2024 race.
“There was another candidate that was on the ballot, and you chose not to support them,” Sununu said, alluding to then-Rep. Dean Phillips.
Trump’s tumultuous second term also hung over the debate and became the subject of repeated attacks by Pappas. He invoked the president’s comments that the affordability crisis is a “hoax” and painted Sununu as someone who would enable his agenda.
Sununu, for his part, tried to get ahead of those attacks and ticked through the Trump policies he opposes early in the debate. That includes the Russian oil deal the president recently struck, he said, as well as the way Trump entered the war in Iran and his trade war with Canada.
He also noted that Trump will only be president for two more years, while a senator’s term lasts six.
“At the end of the day, this race isn’t about next year or the next two years,” Sununu said. “I want to make sure this country goes in the right direction when President Trump leaves office. But I’ll never hesitate to stand up and say when his policies are wrong for New Hampshire, I’ll oppose them. If they’re right for New Hampshire, I’ll support them, but it’s all about the right thing for New Hampshire.”
At another point, Pappas used the topic of immigration to create daylight with Biden and Democratic leadership in the House. Sununu has accused him of being a “rubber stamp.”
“I rang the alarm bells with respect to Title 42 going away, and I got a lot of criticism from folks in my own party about that,” Pappas said.
The debate otherwise focused on the finer differences between Pappas and Sununu on policy. On the $2 trillion federal deficit, both men emphasized the need to address runaway government spending, while Sununu promised not to vote for a budget that does not decrease that spending.
They broadly agreed that something needed to be done about the solvency of Social Security as well, while promising to protect the benefits of current retirees. In one jab, Pappas brought up a bill Sununu supported two decades ago that he said would have privatized the program, a characterization that Sununu disputed.
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The debate took place three weeks before New Hampshire voters head to the polls for an election that will decide whether Republicans keep unified control of Washington, including their control of the Senate.
The political environment has worsened for Republicans due to the war in Iran and the resulting spike in gas and diesel prices, but polling still shows a relatively competitive race in New Hampshire, with Pappas ahead by an average of 7 percentage points.