“Swing State” Up for Grabs: NH Election Rocks The Granite State
The state of New Hampshire (NH) had their primary elections on September 8th, and the results show that it is still anyone’s race. Senator Jeanne Shaheen, who has held the senate seat since 2010, has retired, and congressman Chris Pappas is gunning for her seat. This means there is no democrat incumbent for the senate or the 1st congressional district.
NH is considered a swing state with many voters identifying as independent or undeclared, meaning the state is quite important for parties attempting to gain a majority. After the primaries, the candidates that emerged for senate are representative Chris Pappas for the democrats and former senator John Sununu for the republicans. The candidates for the 1st district are democrat nominee Stephenie Shaheen, daughter of the now retired senator Jeanne Shaheen, and republican nominee Anthony Dilorenzo, an accomplished businessman and political newcomer.
While the 1st district race is important to locals, the close senate race has drawn national attention as democrats have held the seat since 2010. With the current political climate, the democrats are desperate to take control of the senate and curb the president’s power, which they need a majority of 51-49 to accomplish. In order to achieve this, they need to flip four seats on top of defending all current seats. The democrats currently have a minority of 47-53, meaning a loss in NH would require five republican seats to be flipped while defending far more vulnerable seats such as Michigan and Georgia. We’ll have to see which way the state swings in November.
