Chris Pappas

The AP call is a media projection, and certification was not verified as of November 4, 2026. Pappas won the seat Jeanne Shaheen is vacating.

Pappas has never served in the Senate.

Pappas's Senate committee assignments are unknown as of November 4, 2026.

Chris Pappas was born in Manchester, New Hampshire, on June 4, 1980, according to the official House biographical directory. Pappas graduated from Manchester Central High School in 1998.

Pappas received an A.B. from Harvard University in 2002. The next year, Pappas began serving in the New Hampshire House of Representatives.

The directory lists one occupation outside elected office: restaurant manager. It gives no dates for that work.

Pappas held three state and county posts across 14 years before entering Congress. Service in the state House ran from 2003 to 2007, followed by service as Hillsborough County treasurer from 2007 to 2011.

The directory lists no office for 2011 to 2013. Pappas then served on the New Hampshire Executive Council from 2013 to 2019, a six-year stint that ended the year Pappas entered the U.S. House.

Pappas was elected to the U.S. House as a Democrat for the 116th Congress and reelected for the 117th, 118th and 119th, with House service starting in 2019.

The Office of the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives lists Pappas as the Democrat representing New Hampshire's 1st District, sworn in for the 119th Congress on January 3, 2025. The Clerk lists two current committees: Transportation and Infrastructure, and Veterans' Affairs.

Pappas supports guardrails on AI, including government expertise to review AI systems before they are released to the public, according to an October 9, 2026, interview with New Hampshire Public Radio (NHPR).

In the same interview, Pappas said communities should have the authority to vet data center proposals and to reject them.

The two positions apply at different points. Pre-release review would happen before an AI product reaches the public, while the data center position concerns local approval of new facilities.

Pappas's affordability and economy page opposes Donald Trump's tariffs and supports reimbursing small businesses. The page also backs restoring the expanded Child Tax Credit and providing tax relief through energy policy.

The NHPR interview added two energy-cost proposals: an extra $1 billion for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) and a suspension of the gas tax.

The economy page also credits Pappas with past achievements. Those are the campaign's own claims, and the page does not independently document them.

Pappas's housing plan proposes reducing bureaucracy and offering incentives to increase home construction. It also calls for tax cuts for first-time homebuyers.

On financing, the plan supports affordable housing financing and coordination between public and private partners. It also describes families using an expanded Child Tax Credit for rent or house payments, the same credit the economy page proposes restoring.

The bureaucracy, construction and financing items address building, while the first-time buyer tax cuts and the Child Tax Credit option address household costs.

Pappas added zoning incentives to the housing list in the NHPR interview. Each housing item is a campaign proposal.

Pappas's health care page supports protecting the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and restoring the enhanced premium tax credits. The page also names rural health care access and the nursing workforce as priorities.

The campaign says Pappas voted for Medicaid expansion on the Executive Council and supported legislation to cap insulin costs in Medicare. Both statements are the campaign's own account of the record.

On May 7, 2024, Pappas joined 15 House Democrats in a letter urging President Joe Biden to take executive action on the southern border, according to a press release from Pappas's House office.

The letter addressed border security, fentanyl and orderly legal immigration. It called for funding for U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and for immigration judges.

Pappas's 2026 campaign immigration page supports a secure border. It also supports deporting people convicted of serious crimes.

The page opposes what it describes as current overreach by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). It proposes redirecting $75 billion in ICE funding to local law enforcement, and it backs the Comprehensive Southern Border Strategy Act and border technology.

Pappas's office reported in a May 7, 2024 press release that he cosponsors the Dignity Act, a bipartisan proposal covering border security, border infrastructure, new asylum pathways and a path to citizenship. The same release says his letter called for bipartisan reform that pairs enforcement with a citizenship path.

His office also reports that in March 2023 Pappas helped introduce the Comprehensive Southern Border Strategy Act. That bill would require the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to create a southern border strategy. DHS would submit the strategy to the House Homeland Security Committee and the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. His office also reports a border security task force in March 2024.

The record documents both bills as proposed legislation, not as enacted law.

Pappas's energy and environment page supports an all-of-the-above energy supply that includes clean energy. It also backs weatherization and electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure.

On water, the page covers two items: standards for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), and investment in clean water and lead pipes.

Pappas's labor page supports collective bargaining and the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act. It also calls for restoring collective bargaining rights for federal workers.

On work and training, the labor page backs job training, apprenticeships and training programs for veterans. These are campaign positions, not Senate enactments.

Pappas's anti-corruption agenda supports banning stock trading by members of Congress. It also calls for lobbying disclosure covering officials and their spouses, and for an independent congressional ethics watchdog.

The agenda further proposes banning insiders from political prediction markets and restricting lobbying for foreign governments. Backing these rules is a policy position and does not show that anyone committed a crime.

In October 2026, FactCheck.org reviewed an attack ad claiming Pappas's wealth grew 1,000% while in office. FactCheck.org concluded the ad distorted the facts by distorting the broad value ranges in financial disclosure reports and by adding assets held by Pappas's spouse.

FactCheck.org's review addressed the accuracy of a political ad and is not a finding of corruption.