New Hampshire · U.S. Senate
NH Class 2 Senate seat
Coverage: this seat is included in the 2026 national listing.
Candidate source
Candidate source: New Hampshire Secretary of State — NH SOS 2026 general election page (403) (retrieved 2026-09-28). Absence of a candidate row is never evidence that a race has no candidates.
How the candidate list was checked
Rows read from the official source: 0 · published here: 0 · left out by rule: 0 · held back for review: 0. sos.nh.gov and app.sos.nh.gov return HTTP 403 'Access Denied' (Akamai) to browser-UA curl; no official 2026 general candidate content retrievable.
Hot Races · statewide: the 2024 presidential result in this state was D+2.8, #3 closest of 41 statewide 2026 contests. Neither is a forecast of this race. How the list works
Boundaries and sources
County–district classifications come from official block-assignment files, cross-checked against Census representations; render geometry is display-only.
Current officeholder
The current officeholder has not been confirmed in this edition. This does not establish that the seat is vacant.
Polling
D+7.0 — Chris Pappas (Democrat) against John Sununu (Republican), averaging each pollster’s latest poll in the 30 days to October 7, 2026: 3 polls from 3 pollsters.
A poll average describes what recent surveys found. Each poll has its own sampling error, larger for smaller samples. The average is not a forecast and not a probability. Matchup: named in the 3 most recent polls. 5 polls in the source were left out: party-sponsored or internal polls, other matchups, duplicate versions of the same poll, or polls missing who was surveyed.
All 18 polls
| Pollster | Fieldwork | Sample | Chris Pappas | John Sununu | Margin |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The New York Times/Siena University | September 15, 2026 – September 22, 2026 | 613 likely voters | 50% | 45% | D+5.0 |
| University of New Hampshire | September 17, 2026 – September 21, 2026 | 1,418 likely voters | 50% | 42% | D+8.0 |
| InsiderAdvantage | September 16, 2026 – September 17, 2026 | 1,200 likely voters | 48% | 40% | D+8.0 |
| University of New Hampshire | August 20, 2026 – August 24, 2026 | 1,878 likely voters | 43% | 45% | R+2.0 |
| Saint Anselm College Survey Center | August 17, 2026 – August 18, 2026 | 1,411 likely voters | 48% | 41% | D+7.0 |
| Saint Anselm | June 24, 2026 – June 25, 2026 | 1,614 registered voters | 47% | 41% | D+6.0 |
| University of New Hampshire | June 18, 2026 – June 23, 2026 | 2,232 likely voters | 47% | 44% | D+3.0 |
| University of New Hampshire | April 17, 2026 – April 21, 2026 | 1,295 likely voters | 49% | 42% | D+7.0 |
| Emerson College | March 21, 2026 – March 23, 2026 | 1,100 likely voters | 45.3% | 43.7% | D+1.6 |
| Saint Anselm | March 16, 2026 – March 18, 2026 | 1,491 registered voters | 46% | 43% | D+3.0 |
| yes. every kid. | January 28, 2026 – January 29, 2026 | 563 likely voters | 45% | 41% | D+4.0 |
| University of New Hampshire | January 15, 2026 – January 19, 2026 | 2,038 likely voters | 50% | 45% | D+5.0 |
| Praecones Analytica for New Hampshire Journal | December 26, 2025 – December 28, 2025 | 603 registered voters | 42.3% | 35.6% | D+6.7 |
| Saint Anselm | November 18, 2025 – November 19, 2025 | 2,112 registered voters | 44% | 41% | D+3.0 |
| co/efficient | October 9, 2025 – October 13, 2025 | 1,034 likely voters | 45% | 42% | D+3.0 |
| University of New Hampshire | September 17, 2025 – September 23, 2025 | 1,225 likely voters | 49% | 43% | D+6.0 |
| co/efficient | September 10, 2025 – September 12, 2025 | 904 likely voters | 46% | 43% | D+3.0 |
| 1892 Polling for One Nation | September 2, 2025 – September 4, 2025 | 500 likely voters | 45% | 43% | D+2.0 |
PrivateVoteHub Polls from the VoteHub Polling API, retrieved October 7, 2026, used under CC BY 4.0. How polls are chosen
Economic profile of the state this seat represents
FederalCensus Bureau American Community Survey 2020-2024 (5-year) · survey period 2020-2024 · State of New Hampshire
- Median household income$99,031± $1,123
- Poverty rate7.2%± 0.3 ppPopulation for whom poverty status is determined
- Rent burden (30%+ of income on gross rent)48.2%± 1.4 ppRenter-occupied households paying cash rent for which rent burden is computed
- Homeownership rate72.8%± 0.4 ppOccupied housing units
- Bachelor's degree or higher (age 25+)40.6%± 0.5 ppPopulation 25 years and over
Technical definitions (ACS tables)
- Rent burden (30%+ of income on gross rent)
- Renter-occupied households paying cash rent for which rent burden is computed: B25070_001 minus B25070_011 (Not computed)
This seat's geography is exactly coterminous with its state (or the District), so the state estimates from the same edition apply directly.
Structural five-year survey conditions — not current monthly conditions. Uncertainties are 90% margins of error: the published ACS margin for median income; Census-formula approximations (ACS handbook ch. 8) for the rates. “Margin unavailable” means the source supplies no usable margin — never zero.
Campaign finances
No contest in this release carries campaign-finance context.
Current officeholder — Congress.gov context
Jeanne Shaheen · Democratic · New Hampshire · served in 9 Congresses since 2009
Identity verified against the official Congress.gov member record (Bioguide S001181), recorded through 2026-10-04T02:54:23Z. Current officeholding is separate from 2026 candidacy status. Official member website.
Recent housing, employment, energy and infrastructure legislation
From the member's sponsored then cosponsored legislation lists (newest first, limit 30 each), the newest items whose CONFIRMED official legislative subjects intersect {Housing and Community Development, Labor and Employment, Energy, Transportation and Public Works, Water Resources Development} are selected, at most 3 sponsored and 2 cosponsored, 5 total. Items whose relevance cannot be confirmed via the official /subjects endpoint are omitted.
- S.3258-119 — Aviation Medication Transparency Act of 2026cosponsor latest action 2026-10-01: Held at the desk. · subjects: Transportation and Public Works
Sponsorship is a record of introduction or support — not passage, effectiveness, or economic impact.
Counties and this district
County boundaries for this seat are not published in this release. Explore individual counties on the county map.