Buttigieg Blasts GOP Ticket, Warns New Hampshire Democrats That The Senate Race Is 'Tight'

By Leonard Robinson, NH Journal

Pete Buttigieg returned to New Hampshire over the weekend to rally Democrats, attack the Republican ticket, and warn voters who assume the Granite State’s U.S. Senate seat is safely in Democratic hands.

“This has always been an extremely competitive state,” the former transportation secretary told WMUR. “I see that Chris Pappas is taking nothing for granted, leaving nothing to chance.”

Buttigieg joined Democratic Senate nominee Pappas, NH-01 nominee Stefany Shaheen, and gubernatorial candidate Cinde Warmington at the Rochester Opera House on Friday. The following night, he delivered the keynote address at the New Hampshire Democratic Party’s Eleanor Roosevelt Dinner in Concord.

The two-day visit put a potential 2028 presidential contender alongside Democrats facing consequential November races, while giving Buttigieg another opportunity to reconnect with voters who helped him finish second in the state’s 2020 presidential primary.

At the Rochester rally, which drew roughly 200 people, Buttigieg sought to make President Donald Trump a liability for Republican candidates up and down the ticket.

“The reality is when this president and these House and Senate Republicans came in promising to make life better, a lot of people believed them,” Buttigieg said. “Right now, it’s day 621, and gas is up, groceries are up, diesel is up, mortgage rates are up, rent is up, and not by accident but directly because of the tariffs and the trade wars and the nonsense policies that have gotten rubber-stamped by our Republican House and Senate in Washington.”

Buttigieg spent much of his time connecting Granite State Republicans with the unpopular president.

“You got Anthony DiLorenzo running for House against Stefany Shaheen, Donald Trump’s handpicked candidate,” Buttigieg said. “Speaker Johnson sent out an email saying ‘President Trump and I trust Anthony,’ which makes me wonder what it is they trust him to do.”

Asked about concerns that national Democrats were overlooking the Senate contest, he pointed to U.S. Sen. Maggie Hassan’s narrow 2016 victory and described the Pappas race as “a tight race.”

“I want to be there to support him,” Buttigieg said.

Pappas is facing former Republican Sen. John E. Sununu in the race to succeed retiring Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen. Sununu lost the seat to Shaheen in 2008 and is seeking a return to Washington.

Buttigieg’s attacks on Sununu went beyond policy disagreements.

“Every time I look at a story about John Sununu, I see everything that people are so frustrated about with Washington,” Buttigieg said, calling him “very much a creature of Washington.”

Republicans fired back.

“Democrats hate New Hampshire, and they sent Pete Buttigieg to our state to try to make up for taking the First-in-the-Nation primary away from us,” said NHGOP Chairman Scott Maltzie. “Pete is not the moderate the left wants Granite Staters to believe he is. He supports taxpayer-funded healthcare for illegal aliens, abolishing the Electoral College, and packing the Supreme Court.”

Buttigieg tried to use his transportation record to make an affirmative case for Pappas, crediting the congressman with pressing for attention to New Hampshire projects.

Pappas “was there when we needed him,” Buttigieg said, adding that the congressman “called me anytime there was a project that needed attention.”

The projects discussed included improvements along flood-prone Route 1A on the Seacoast, a $7 million grant for Portsmouth International Airport at Pease and approximately $1.4 billion for New Hampshire roads and bridges under the bipartisan infrastructure law.

The Sununu campaign, however, has repeatedly noted that New Hampshire ranks 51st in federal transportation funding, even as Pappas sits on the House Transportation Committee.

Buttigieg also criticized Gov. Kelly Ayotte’s veto of the state’s 10-year transportation plan, using it to argue for Warmington.

Ayotte vetoed the plan in July over toll increases for drivers without New Hampshire E-ZPass transponders. The Republican-controlled legislature overrode the veto Aug. 19.

Ayotte addressed the issue on WMUR over the weekend.

“The reason I vetoed the tolls is I’m worried about affordability, and that would hit a number of people by doubling the tolls,” Ayotte said. “And by the way, 15% of those impacted people are here in New Hampshire.”

For Pappas, Buttigieg’s presence was welcome.

“I couldn’t ask for a better wingman,” he said.

Pappas also encouraged a return visit, drawing applause from the Rochester crowd.

“We saw a lot of him back in 2020. I hope we see a lot more of him here in New Hampshire. What do you guys think?”

Buttigieg has made no secret of the fact he’s considering a 2028 White House run, or that New Hampshire — where, as he told the crowd, he finished a “very, very, very, very close second” behind U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders — would be a key state in his strategy. However, this weekend Buttigieg deflected questions about a presidential bid.

“Look, I hope to spend Nov. 4 placing all the congratulations calls that I couldn’t fit in on the night of Nov. 3 because we have big wins across the country,” he told WMUR.

This story was originally published by the NH Journal, an online news publication dedicated to providing fair, unbiased reporting on, and analysis of, political news of interest to New Hampshire. For more stories from the NH Journal, visit NHJournal.com.