Manzur: I Have Not Endorsed Pappas

By Michael Graham, NH Journal

“Aligned,” but not endorsed.

That’s the current state of Karishma Manzur’s support — or lack thereof — for U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate.

Manzur, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, surprised many Granite State political insiders when she won 50,000 votes against the four-term congressman in her underfunded, long-shot primary bid, about a third of the total.

She harshly criticized Pappas during the primary for not supporting the progressive agenda, particularly on a government-run, single-payer health care system (“Medicare for All”) and his past support of Israel. She also pointedly declined to say she would support the eventual nominee if she lost.

On the morning after the election, Manzur was notably absent from the Democratic Party unity breakfast.

On Tuesday, Sept. 22, Seacoast Online published an article headlined “Karishma Manzur backs Chris Pappas as NH Senate race moves to toss-up.”

“Whatever he asked me to do, I’ve done,” the news outlet quoted Manzur as saying. “We need to stop John Sununu. I do not want John Sununu to win. I do not want Trump to have another yes man.”

The outlet also reported that Manzur and Pappas are “both aligned,” according to Manzur.

“If Chris Pappas asks me to do anything more, I will absolutely support his work. But at the moment, he has not asked me to do anything more than…that public statement that we are both aligned.”

On Wednesday, Manzur sent a statement to publisher Howard Altschiller and the reporter who wrote the story, demanding a correction.

“Your recent article inaccurately characterizes my position. I will only ‘back’ or ‘support’ a federal candidate who, at a minimum:

• Supports Medicare for All to protect the health and well-being of Granite Staters,
• Supports a moratorium on hyperscale AI data centers in New Hampshire and across the country, and
• Rejects money from foreign-aligned lobbies and weapons transfers to foreign entities violating human rights,” Manzur wrote.

The “foreign-aligned” references are to Israel and to the U.S. citizens who support the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

So is Manzur supporting Pappas or not? She did not respond to requests for comment.

Pappas has been public in his appeals to Manzur, declaring that the far-left activist and Israel basher “belongs in the party.”

“This is a big tent, and we all belong,” Pappas said at the unity breakfast. “I know she’s going to keep fighting for democracy and for what she believes in, and she belongs in this party.”

The question is whether Manzur agrees.

Sununu’s campaign spokesman Mike Schrimpf was happy to point out Pappas’ problems.

“After catering to the Far Left during his primary, Chris Pappas isn’t even pretending to pivot to the middle in the general election. Granite Staters should know that Pappas is more concerned about making sure socialists feel welcomed than being an independent voice for New Hampshire.”

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.