Tom Sullivan and Susan Lloyd were the first to quietly pull up chairs in front of the television as they watched the results of their efforts play out on cable news.
They spent hours volunteering at the polls on Tuesday and arrived to the watch party in Concord for Karishma Manzur, a progressive candidate running against Chris Pappas in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate, in hopes that she would pull off an upset.
What supporters saw as a movement turned into “heartbreaking” results, as Sullivan put it, as more people trickled toward the television to see Pappas, not Manzur, clinch the Democratic nomination.
“It’s the way our elections go, right?” said Sullivan, who lives in Contoocook. “Every winner tonight is an incumbent or has the name recognition of a lifetime in politics.”
The mood was much lighter in Manchester, where four-term congressman Pappas celebrated a decisive win against Manzur, a Democratic socialist and scientist from Exeter. The Associated Press called it for Pappas around 8 p.m., and he led Manzur 63.1% to 34.7% with a little under half of precincts reporting.
Come November, the four-term congressman will face Republican candidate John E. Sununu, who held the seat for one term before Jeanne Shaheen.
Pappas centered his campaign on promising to bring down costs and rooting out corporate and political corruption. He pitched himself as the one who will “challenge the broken ways of Washington.”
“It is time to turn the page in America to a better day. We’ve got to turn the page on Donald Trump’s reckless leadership, on corruption, on the rigged economy, and on costs. And this is not the time to turn it back to a failed politician from the past. It is time to look ahead to the future, and that’s what we’re fighting for in this campaign.”
Manzur, in her concession speech, called for Democrats to unite around Pappas — as long as he earns it.
“In order for Chris Pappas to win this seat, he must earn the support of the voters who chose our campaign tonight,” Manzur said. “We have to work together to defeat the Republican establishment in the general election, but we also have to unite to change the direction of the Democratic Party.”
Those who voted for Pappas viewed him as a fighter for their interests and felt that he had the best chance of beating Sununu in the general election.
“People just want to be sure that their senators are fighting for them on economic issues,” said Mark Paige, a Democratic state representative from Exeter who attended Pappas’s party on Tuesday. “Pappas has done that as a Congressman. I think he has the record to demonstrate that.”
Sununu was heavily favored to clinch his party’s nomination and did so, with 68.7% of the vote. His primary opponent, former Massachusetts senator Scott Brown, had 26.1% of the vote as of Tuesday night, according to the AP.
Sununu sought to brand Pappas as a career politician and challenged him to a debate in every county.
“When it comes to standing up for New Hampshire, I take a backseat to no one. I’m not running for any other job. I don’t want to make anyone in Washington happy,” Sununu told supporters. “I know that as your senator: to stand up for the people of New Hampshire every single day.”
Brown had not released a statement on the results as of Tuesday by 10 p.m.
