Democrats swept the races for New Hampshire’s two congressional seats Tuesday, with one victor a political newcomer and the other an experienced campaigner with a long record of elected office in the state.
In the 1st Congressional District, Democrat Chris Pappas won a fourth straight term in Congress, defeating Republican Russell Prescott.
And in New Hampshire’s 2nd Congressional District, Maggie Goodlander — in her first run for elected office — defeated Republican Lily Tang Williams. Goodlander succeeds six-term Congresswoman Annie Kuster, who did not seek re-election this year.
The results mean New Hampshire’s federal delegation will remain an all-Democrat slate, with both U.S. Senate seats currently held by Democrats as well.
“Tonight, I am truly honored by the vote of confidence from the people of New Hampshire to continue our work for the next two years”, Pappas told supporters gathered at the Puritan Backroom in Manchester, his family’s restaurant. “I’m here to work on behalf of all the people who call New Hampshire home.”
The state’s 1st District has been considered a swing district over the past two decades, with Republicans and Democrats regularly trading control of the seat. But Pappas has now won four consecutive races, including the last two in decisive fashion. In this campaign, as in his past victories, Pappas pitched himself as a bipartisan consensus builder focused on bread-and-butter issues like drug prices, veterans’ needs, and infrastructure.
The Associated Press called the race for Pappas at around 11:45 p.m., with him securing 54% of the votes.
In an interview with WMUR Tuesday night, Prescott thanked his family, including his eight grandchildren.
“I did this for them so they would see an example of how you could be a public servant and you can talk about the issues without becoming something so negative,” Prescott said. “Politics should not be that way.”
Pappas relies on years of campaign experience
Pappas is the first person to win four consecutive terms in the 1st District since Norman D’Amours, a five-term Democrat who held the seat from 1974 to 1984.
In their debates, both Pappas and Prescott presented themselves to voters as measured, experienced politicians while touting their respective deep roots to New Hampshire. Pappas faced some criticism from the left flank of his party over his continued support for Israel’s military operations in Gaza, but also spoke frequently about his support for reproductive rights to curry support with Democrats and independents. Prescott, a former executive councilor and state senator, stressed his financial management skills as a small business owner, as well as the need to push for a balanced budget in Washington.
In 2022, Prescott finished fourth in the Republican primary for this same seat. The GOP nominee in that race, Karoline Leavitt, lost to Pappas by more than eight percentage points.
Pappas, at 44, is a seasoned politician. He has served in the state House of Representatives, winning his first race in 2002 at the age of 22. He has also served as Hillsborough County treasurer, and served three terms on the Executive Council before he ran for Congress in 2018.
Pappas has leveraged his Manchester roots and combined it with his appeal in some progressive circles around New Hampshire, including the Seacoast area, said Jim Demers, a longtime Democratic figure and political observer in the state.
“He’s pretty much established himself as someone who can hold that seat for a long time, if he decides that’s what he wants to do,” said Demers.
Goodlander successful in first run for elected office
Goodlander, by contrast, was making her first run for elected office this year.
“Whether you voted for me or not, if I have the honor of representing you, I will work for you — all of you — in the people’s house,” Goodlander said to a room of supporters at the Bank of New Hampshire Stage in Concord. “That means that you’re going to be on my mind wherever I am, everywhere I go.”
As of 1:30 a.m. Tuesday, Goodlander had won 53% of the vote, to 47% to Tang Williams, according to results from the Associated Press.
For Goodlander, the victory was the culmination of a meteoric rise in state politics. Before this year, she was a relatively unknown figure who had built her career in Washington, D.C. in a range of federal jobs: as a Supreme Court clerk, as a lawyer in the Department of Justice, as a Capitol Hill staffer, and as an advisor to the Biden White House. But after moving back to her hometown of Nashua earlier this year and defeating Colin Van Ostern in a bitterly contested Democratic primary in September, Goodlander will now represent the state in Congress.
On the campaign trail, she pitched herself to voters as a “workhorse” who could thrive in the Capitol. She is married to Jake Sullivan, the U.S. National Security Advisor to President Biden. And her candidacy received support from Democrats at the highest levels, including Hillary Clinton and, locally, former New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch.
But she’s also drawn on her childhood in Nashua and her family’s political history during her campaign. Goodlander spoke about being able to see the hospital where she was born and her great-grandfather’s shoe factory from her living room of the Nashua apartment she rented once she decided to run for Congress. Her mother Betty Tamposi, a former state lawmaker, featured in her ads.
Goodlander often displayed her support for reproductive rights as a cornerstone of her campaign, grounding that policy stance in a story of her personal experience struggling with access to healthcare in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision. She also emphasized the idea of a “fair deal,” which includes support for a range of efforts like affordable health care, tax reform, and housing access.
That was in contrast to Tang Williams, who focused heavily on immigration and fiscal discipline in her messaging to voters. Tang Williams ran for Congress in Colorado in 2016 as a Libertarian before moving to New Hampshire as part of the Free State Project. She spoke throughout her campaign about her childhood in China and her immigration to the United States.
At Goodlander's victory party Tuesday evening, pop music lifted the mood for her supporters. Among them was Lynch, who said he was excited to see the rise of a new state politician.
“I think she's going to be a new, fresh face in terms of Washington; she’s had incredible experience” he said. “It's amazing what she's done. She is very, very nonpartisan. So I think she's going to be able to work with people on both sides to craft important legislation for New Hampshire and for the country.”
