Election night usually runs on decimals, but the moment people are sharing is a thank-you. New Hampshire just elected its next senator, and Pappas wins Senate race history in the process. The Democratic congressman beat Republican John E. Sununu on Tuesday night, and the Washington Blade reports he becomes the first openly gay man elected to the U.S. Senate.
Then he did the thing everyone is clipping. In his victory speech in Manchester, Pappas turned to the man next to him and thanked him in front of the whole country.
Pappas defeats Sununu: how the night unfolded
Decision Desk HQ called the race at 8:00 p.m. Eastern, according to Townhall. Other outlets followed, and the Axios report says AP, CBS, CNN and the New York Times all called it too.
Sununu conceded at about 8:15 p.m. “This has been an incredible campaign, but it is not our night,” he said, per the Boston Globe. Pappas took the stage around 8:30.
The numbers are still coming in. With about 79 percent of the expected vote counted, NBC News showed Pappas at 56.3 percent, Sununu at 41.9 percent and independent Edmond Laplante at 1.8 percent.
That is a partial count, so the final margin will move. The race was never called on a squeaker, though.
The moment that went viral
“I want to thank the guy next to me, my amazing husband Vann,” Pappas said, as quoted by the Sunday Guardian. The Globe’s account has him telling the crowd, “Win, lose or draw, I’m the luckiest guy,” because he is married to a man he loves. In a USA Today video post, he added, “He’s always been by my side.”
Vann Bentley is a lawyer. According to Just Jared, the couple got engaged in December 2021 and married in February 2023.
No spin needed here: a guy thanked his spouse on the biggest night of his career. Plenty of people on both sides of the aisle can relate to that.
Why the New Hampshire Senate victory matters beyond the state
Here’s the thing: Republicans saw this as one of their few real pickup chances. CBS News notes the state has not elected a Republican senator since 2010. Sununu is a name voters know. He held this seat from 2003 to 2009, and his brother Chris was governor for eight years.
He also tried to keep some distance from Donald Trump, per Axios. Senate Majority Leader John Thune campaigned for him. And Don Bolduc, the Trump-endorsed 2022 nominee, endorsed Pappas in mid-October.
That is a lot of Republican firepower and a lot of Republican defection, and it still wasn’t close enough.
CBS ties the GOP’s trouble this cycle to the unpopular war in Iran and high gas and diesel prices. Those kitchen-table issues are the ones to watch.
Pappas framed his win as a rebuke of Trump and the Republican national agenda, according to the New Hampshire Bulletin. Republicans will argue it was a local race about a well-liked congressman. Both things can be partly true.
What happens next now that Pappas is elected senator
Pappas, 46, has served in the House since 2019 and is a member of the Problem Solvers Caucus. He has now won five straight congressional races. He beat Karoline Leavitt, now the White House press secretary, in the 2022 House race.
He takes over the seat of retiring Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, so this one stays blue rather than flipping.
Whether Democrats win control of the Senate is still undecided, and other results are still coming in. Axios says only that this win could boost their chances. We will not call that until the national count is in.
Control of Congress remains the big open question. His House seat is now open too, and officials have not announced his swearing-in date or committee assignments. New Hampshire still has to certify the final vote.
For now, the night belongs to a Granite State congressman and the man standing next to him. By morning, the national fight for the Senate will want the microphone back.
