Profiles In 'Present': Pappas Passes On Confronting Socialist Surge

By Michael Graham, NH Journal

With progressive candidates backing far-left policies such as single-payer health care winning Democratic primaries across the country, will New Hampshire’s Chris Pappas “fight this leftward lurch in your party, or just go with the flow?”

WMUR’s Adam Sexton posed that question to the Democratic U.S. Senate candidate over the weekend.

Pappas’ answer? In effect, “Present.”

Pappas declined to take a clear position, much as he did when he voted “present” on Rep. Thomas Massie’s amendment to block all U.S. military aid to Israel. His New Hampshire colleague, Rep. Maggie Goodlander, voted “yes.”

Goodlander also joined a group of House Democrats supporting a “Promise to America” effort pushing back against the socialist surge.

Pappas’ response to Sexton was far less definitive.

“Well, the fact is, I’ve been tested in primaries and in general elections before. Folks here in New Hampshire know the kind of Democrat that I am. I stand up and fight for New Hampshire,” Pappas said.

He listed some of the “big fights” he says he has taken on, including “defending a woman’s right to choose” and “acting on climate change.” But he never said whether he would support or oppose the progressive direction of his party.

Instead, Pappas suggested there was room in the Democratic coalition for the party’s El-Sayed wing.

“We’ve got to build a big tent in order to win elections in New Hampshire and across the country, and that’s what I’m focused on doing,” Pappas said.

Sexton followed up.

“Are you going to fight within your own party for your Democratic values, as you said, against democratic socialism?”

Again, Pappas passed on a direct answer.

“I know where Democrats are,” Pappas said. “This is not a left-wing or a right-wing state, and people have a lot of different ideas about the best path forward. We’ve got to be smart about how we communicate around this economy, which isn’t working for people.”

Why hasn’t Pappas joined Goodlander and Democratic figures such as longtime Clinton strategist James Carville in countering the rise of Democratic Socialists in their party?

Perhaps because Pappas faces a progressive primary challenger, Dr. Karishma Manzur. Or perhaps because he will need the Democratic base to turn out in November in a state Sen. Bernie Sanders carried in two presidential primaries.

A recent CNN poll found 34 percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning voters identify as “democratic socialists.”

Pappas’ likely Republican opponent, former U.S. Sen. John E. Sununu, says that whatever ambiguity remains in Pappas’ answers, his politics are clear.

“The socialists are in charge of the Democratic Party,” Sununu told the NHJournal podcast. “They’re driving it, and that’s one of the reasons this is an important election. Because Chris Pappas has gone along with them, hook, line and sinker.”

“They want to defund local law enforcement. They support open borders. They want to make Puerto Rico and D.C. states. These are very specific agenda points, and they’re the very points of the socialist agenda that Chris Pappas refused to reject.”

Sununu pointed to Michigan Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani as evidence that progressives are not merely winning primaries.

“They’re influencing the leadership, even the presidential candidates,” Sununu said.

Former Vice President Kamala Harris endorsed El-Sayed after his primary victory last week. Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg appeared with El-Sayed at a Michigan Democratic unity rally.

Pappas did not respond to questions from NHJournal about the debate over socialism within his party.

Sununu highlighted two progressive positions he said would be particularly harmful to a small state like New Hampshire: ending the Senate filibuster and abandoning the Electoral College.

“The Senate is designed specifically to protect the rights of individual states, to keep smaller states from being overrun, so to speak, by the big, more populous states,” Sununu said. “So anything you do to undermine the power and the strength of individual senators is a blow against states like New Hampshire.”

Sununu made a similar argument for preserving the Electoral College, which gives smaller states a greater role in presidential elections than they would have under a national popular vote.

“To fight against the Electoral College is to fundamentally misunderstand how our government is structured,” Sununu said.

Pappas has been less than definitive on both issues.

Shortly after launching his Senate campaign in April 2025, Pappas declined to rule out voting to end the filibuster. Weeks later, however, he described it as an “important tool” in the U.S. Senate for blocking bad policy and encouraging bipartisan compromise.

Pappas has also stopped short of taking a firm position on abolishing the Electoral College.

Asked about the issue during a 2020 debate, Pappas called the Electoral College an “antiquated compromise” and said, “I think that’s something we should take a look at.”

“I support one person, one vote,” Pappas added. “That’s not a radical notion.”

If Democrats capture a U.S. Senate majority, would Pappas be willing to defy his party and cast the decisive vote blocking a progressive proposal?

“Chris Pappas has never stood up for anything,” Sununu said. “Why would he stand up for that?”

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.