Chris Pappas makes history as first openly gay male senator after defeating John Sununu in NH

Welcome to the stage, your next U.S. Senator. Tonight's results, tonight's results are a wake-up call for corporate special interests and billionaires who have been rigging the economy, for the cowards in Congress who have enabled health care cuts, tariffs, and war, and for the incompetent president who can't even be bothered to care how people are being hurt. So tonight, voters in New Hampshire and all across the country simply have had enough and are demanding a change in direction. And I am ready to fight with everything I've got to deliver the change that we need. This has been a long campaign against a backdrop of the chaos, corruption, and costs coming out of Washington. You said in a resounding voice that America needs a course correction, that Washington needs a new generation at the table to fix things. And that New Hampshire needs independent leadership to stand up and get stuff done. A few minutes ago, I just got a very gracious call from John Sununu. He wished us, he wished us and our team well, and I wish the same for him and his family. And I think we all owe John Sununu a big debt of gratitude for his public service for the people of New Hampshire. So tonight, whether you're a Republican, an independent or a Democrat, tonight's victory is for you because this is a victory for Team New Hampshire over the broken status quo that is hurting all of us just the same. So tonight, we don't celebrate a victory for any one political party. We celebrate a victory for anyone, left, right, or center, struggling with the skyrocketing cost of living from gas to groceries to housing. Anyone who's sick of the tariffs, the endless war, the tax breaks for big corporations paid for by cuts to your health care. Anyone who's fed up with the most corrupt president in our history who has failed in his way of governing. And anyone who knows that we can do so much better if we work together. So we know this was a hard-fought victory tonight. It was made even harder by the tens and tens of millions of dollars that poured into New Hampshire from Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and corporate special interests who are just fine, who are just fine with the way things are going right now. They threw money, attack ads, and outright lies at us every day for months. But we beat them anyway, didn't we? We're the people-powered campaign, a campaign of 200,000 individual donors and not a dime from corporate PACs. And we showed what happens when we stick together, stand up for what's right, and never lose hope even when the odds are long. Thank you all for being here tonight. I really appreciate it.