Greek-American Democrat Chris Pappas won a US Senate seat for New Hampshire, defeating Republican John E. Sununu to keep retiring Senator Jeanne Shaheen’s seat in Democratic hands and becoming the first openly gay man elected to the Senate.
Pappas, 46, whose family comes from Livadi, near Elassona in Greece, has served four terms in the House of Representatives, where he has been active on Greek-US relations, defence cooperation with Greece and support for the Republic of Cyprus. Earlier this year he denounced Turkey’s deployment of F-16 fighter jets in the occupied north of Cyprus as illegal under US law.
The race was one of the key contests for control of the Senate, with Republicans trying to win the seat Shaheen held for three terms. Sununu, 62, served in the Senate from 2003 to 2009 before losing to Shaheen in 2008. He comes from one of New Hampshire’s most prominent political families: his father, John H. Sununu, and his brother, Chris Sununu, both served as governors of the state.
The campaign centred largely on the economy, the rising cost of living and Donald Trump’s policies. Sununu tried to distance himself from the president despite having his backing, while Pappas cast the race as a chance to strengthen congressional oversight of the administration.
In one of the final debates, Pappas said the country needed a new generation of leadership in the Senate to tackle people’s economic difficulties and stand up to what he called the Trump administration’s dangerous choices. “This election is between Team New Hampshire and Team Trump,” he said.
The campaign was expensive and fought heavily through advertising. Republicans accused Pappas of being tied to the Washington establishment, while Democrats focused on Sununu’s links with corporate interests and lobbying groups.
Final polls had shown Pappas ahead, with Decision Desk HQ’s polling average on 3 November putting him on 52 per cent against 43.6 per cent for Sununu. In almost all towns that had declared final results, Pappas won by a bigger margin than Kamala Harris did against Trump in 2024, when she carried New Hampshire by about three percentage points.
Voters’ concerns
About six in ten New Hampshire voters said government corruption was a deciding factor in their vote for Congress, according to preliminary findings from the ABC News Voter Poll. That was higher than the share who cited the rising cost of living, at about half.
The Iran war weighed significantly on the choice of about four in ten voters, while immigration enforcement was decisive for about a third. One in four said AI data centres were a deciding issue, and about eight in ten of those believed the technology would bring society more benefits than harm.
About a third of those voting in the Senate race named the state of American democracy as the country’s biggest problem, slightly more than the roughly 30 per cent who chose the economy.
Greece, Turkey and Cyprus
Pappas co-chairs the Congressional Hellenic Caucus with Republican Gus Bilirakis.
In March 2026 he condemned the deployment of Turkish F-16s in the occupied north, saying it was “unacceptable and illegal under US law” and further threatened Cyprus’s sovereignty. He accused the Turkish president of repeatedly ignoring US legal restrictions and criticised successive administrations of both parties over their approach to Ankara. He called for the US-made jets to be removed immediately and warned that if the administration did not demand their withdrawal, he would take action in Congress.
In September 2025, ahead of a meeting between Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, he led a cross-party letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth objecting to any sale of US F-16 and F-35 fighter jets to Turkey. The lawmakers noted that Ankara still had Russian S-400 air defence missiles and urged the administration to apply the relevant legal restrictions. He has also backed limits on US arms sales to Turkey, citing regional security and compliance with US law.
In May 2026 Pappas announced that a cross-party bill to strengthen Greek-US defence cooperation, co-sponsored with Bilirakis, Dina Titus and Nicole Malliotakis, had cleared the House Foreign Affairs Committee. The bill would extend US assistance to Greece under the International Military Education and Training (IMET) programme for five years, to improve cooperation and interoperability between the two countries’ armed forces.
“Greece is an essential partner of the United States in ensuring regional security and prosperity,” Pappas said at the time, adding that he would keep pushing for the bill to be passed.
From the family restaurant to Congress
Christopher Charles Pappas was born in Manchester, New Hampshire, on 4 June 1980 to a family of Greek descent. He went to state schools in the city, graduating from Manchester Central High School in 1998 and from Harvard University in 2002.
He started helping out at 14 in his family’s restaurant, a Manchester business for more than a century, serving customers and later managing it. He has often drawn on that experience to highlight the difficulties facing small businesses and workers.
He entered politics early, working on Shaheen’s 1996 campaign for governor while still at school. In 2002, aged 22, he was elected to the state House of Representatives and later served as Hillsborough County treasurer. From 2013 to 2019 he sat on New Hampshire’s five-member Executive Council, which approves state contracts and appointments, backing Medicaid expansion, renewable energy and continued funding for Planned Parenthood.
In 2018 he won New Hampshire’s 1st congressional district with 53.6 per cent to his Republican opponent’s 45 per cent, becoming the first openly gay politician to represent the state in Congress. He was re-elected in 2020 with 51.3 per cent to 46.2 per cent and held the seat in 2022 and 2024.
In the House he sat on committees covering transport and infrastructure, small business and veterans’ affairs. He introduced legislation on tax relief for working families, protecting small businesses, lowering drug prices and tackling the opioid crisis, and pushed measures against companies exploiting veterans and to protect water supplies from pollution.
He has often spoken of the values he inherited from his Greek family. In a statement published by the Greek parliament as part of a tribute to Greek-American lawmakers, he said he had always been proud of his Greek heritage and had worked to bring his family’s values of hard work, community and service to Washington. Greece and the United States shared a special bond, he said, and Greek-Americans were an integral part of New Hampshire and the country. He keeps close ties with the Greek-American community and the Greek Orthodox Church.
Pappas lives in Manchester with his husband, Vann Bentley; they announced their engagement in December 2021. His personal life was not a central part of the campaign. “I’m not running to make history,” he said during the race, adding that voters were focused mainly on his policies and everyday problems.
(information from protothema.gr)
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