HISTORY MADE: First Openly Gay Man Storms Into US Senate

In a landmark victory that shattered a longstanding barrier in American politics, Democratic Congressman Chris Pappas defeated former Republican Senator John E. Sununu on Tuesday night to claim New Hampshire’s open U.S. Senate seat, becoming the first openly gay man ever elected to the upper chamber.

The 46-year-old Manchester native and four-term U.S. representative secured a decisive win, capturing roughly 56 percent of the vote to Sununu’s 42 percent. The Associated Press called the race shortly after 8:20 p.m., and Sununu conceded within minutes, clearing the path for Pappas to succeed retiring three-term Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen.

Addressing jubilant supporters at his family’s Puritan Backroom restaurant in Manchester—the same venue that has long been a political landmark and claims to have invented the chicken tender—Pappas framed the result as a rebuke of national dysfunction. “This has been a long campaign against the backdrop of the chaos, corruption and costs coming out of Washington,” he said. “And New Hampshire showed up today.”

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He called the outcome “a victory for Team New Hampshire over the broken status quo” and a “wake-up call for corporate special interests and billionaires who have been rigging the economy, for the cowards in Congress who have enabled health care cuts, tariffs and war, and for the incompetent president who can’t even be bothered to care how people are being hurt.”

Standing beside his husband, Vann Bentley, Pappas grew personal. “I want to thank the guy next to me, my amazing husband, Vann… Tonight, win, lose, or draw, I’m the luckiest guy because I’m married to a man that I love. And despite all the negative attacks and the lies, it’s nice to know that love and truth prevailed tonight.”

The win carries dual significance. For Democrats, it preserves a critical Senate seat as the party fought to wrest control of the chamber from Republicans. For LGBTQ+ representation, it marks a historic first: while Wisconsin’s Tammy Baldwin became the first openly gay person elected to the Senate in 2012, no openly gay man had previously claimed a seat through election.

Pappas’s path to the Senate reflects deep local roots. Born June 4, 1980, in Manchester to Dawn and Arthur Pappas, he grew up working in the family restaurant founded by his Greek immigrant great-grandfather in 1917. After graduating from Manchester Central High School and earning a government degree from Harvard in 2002, he climbed the political ranks—state representative, Hillsborough County treasurer, Executive Council member—before winning his House seat in 2018 as New Hampshire’s first openly gay member of Congress.

Sununu, 62, a member of one of New Hampshire’s most prominent political families (son and brother of former governors), had sought a comeback 18 years after losing the same seat to Shaheen in 2008. His name recognition and attempts to distance himself from President Donald Trump’s more unpopular policies proved insufficient against Pappas’s strong local brand and the broader midterm climate.

Pappas will be succeeded in the House by Stefany Shaheen, daughter of the retiring senator. He is expected to take office in January 2027, bringing a moderate, business-oriented Democratic voice—and a new chapter of representation—to the U.S. Senate.

The victory cements Pappas’s place in history not only as a trailblazer but as the latest chapter in a New Hampshire political story that has long mixed family enterprise, community service, and national ambition.