Morning Digest: Democrats land first major candidate for New Hampshire's open Senate race
Chris Pappas would be the first openly gay man to serve in the upper chamber
Leading Off
NH-Sen
Rep. Chris Pappas announced Thursday that he would run next year to succeed retiring Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, a fellow New Hampshire Democrat. Pappas would be the first openly gay man to ever serve in the upper chamber and is the first major candidate from either party to enter the race.
It remains to be seen if the congressman, who represents the eastern half of the Granite State, will face a competitive primary next year or if he'll be able to focus on the general election in this light-blue state. Rep. Maggie Goodlander, the state's other House member, is the only other prominent Democrat who has expressed interest in running, but she has not committed to anything. (Former Rep. Annie Kuster said last month she'd only consider a Senate bid if Pappas didn't run.)
Pappas emerged as one of the more prominent Democrats in the state even before he won his first House race in 2018. The congressman is a co-owner of the Puritan Backroom, his family's Manchester restaurant that has long been an important campaign stop for presidential primary candidates. The restaurant has also attracted plenty of attention for non-electoral reasons: Pappas' grandfather, Charlie Pappas, is widely credited as the creator of the chicken tender.
The younger Pappas won election in 2012 to the state's five-member Executive Council, a unique body tasked with approving most state contracts and major gubernatorial appointments. Soon after, he was talked about as a potential candidate for higher office. He got his chance in the 2018 cycle when Democratic Rep. Carol Shea-Porter, who had just started her third non-consecutive stint in the House, stunned just about everyone by announcing her retirement.
Both parties anticipated a tough general election to replace her in the 1st Congressional District, which had changed party control in five of the last six elections, but the blue wave instead propelled Pappas to a decisive 54-45 victory. The new congressman also proved to be difficult to dislodge: He won his second term 51-46 in 2020, and he scored 8-point victories during his two most recent campaigns.
What kind of posture will the Senate present toward Donald Trump? Races like the one above will play a critical role in determining whether Senate Democrats stick with their old playbook or chart a new, more aggressive course. If this storyline is as important to you as it is to us, then please consider supporting our work.
1Q Fundraising
CA-40: Esther Kim Varet (D): $630,000 raised, additional $375,000 self-funded
MI-08: Kristen McDonald Rivet (D-inc): $750,000 raised (considering Senate bid)
NY-21: Blake Gendebien (D): $3 million raised, $2 million cash on hand
TX-38: Wesley Hunt (R-inc): $1.5 million raised (considering Senate bid)
Senate
NE-Sen
Former labor leader Dan Osborn said Thursday that he was forming an exploratory committee to gauge a possible independent run against Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts.
Osborn, who lost to GOP Sen. Deb Fischer 53-47 in last year's race for Nebraska's other seat, spent the ensuing months mulling bids for several other offices, including governor and both the 1st and 2nd Congressional Districts.
Osborn, however, mentioned only Ricketts on Thursday as he framed their potential faceoff as a battle between "[s]omeone who's spent his life working for a living and will never take an order from a corporation or a party boss, or someone who's never worked a day in his life and is entirely beholden to corporations and party bosses."
Governors
VA-Gov
Former Del. Dave LaRock said Thursday that he'd failed to collect enough signatures from voters to make the June 17 Republican primary ballot for governor, an admission that came just hours before Virginia's candidate filing deadline.
Former state Sen. Amanda Chase did turn in signatures, but she said earlier in the day that her campaign did not "check or verify" them. It will be up to the state Republican Party to confirm that Chase has submitted 10,000 valid signatures, including 400 from each of the state's 11 congressional districts, a process that the Virginia Scope's Brandon Jarvis says "will take days."
The two frontrunners for governor, Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears and former Democratic Rep. Abigail Spanberger, already turned in signatures and should have little trouble qualifying. And while Democratic Rep. Bobby Scott never definitively ruled out running before Thursday's deadline, he did not try to get on the ballot.
House
AZ-07
Outgoing Pima County Supervisor Adelita Grijalva unveiled endorsements Thursday from both of Arizona's Democratic senators, Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego, as well as former Rep. Gabby Giffords. Giffords, who is married to Kelly, backed Grijalva over former state Rep. Daniel Hernandez, a former Giffords intern who gave her life-saving assistance after she was shot in the head in a 2011 assassination attempt.
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CA-13
Ceres Mayor Javier Lopez has filed FEC paperwork for an anticipated campaign against freshman Democratic Rep. Adam Gray in California's 13th District. The Ceres Courier reported last month that Lopez had decided to challenge Gray in this Central Valley constituency, and former Rep. John Duarte said he'd back his fellow Republican rather than seek to avenge his narrow 2024 defeat.
CA-41
Former federal prosecutor Will Rollins tells Politico he won't wage a third campaign against Rep. Ken Calvert, a 17-term Republican who fended off the Democrat in both 2022 and 2024. Rollins' two 52-48 losses were the first time Calvert had trouble winning since 2008, when an unheralded Democrat came shockingly close to unseating the veteran incumbent. Democrats are sure to again target Calvert in a constituency that favored Donald Trump 52-46.
NH-01
Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas' decision to run for the Senate opens up New Hampshire's 1st Congressional District, which, according to calculations by The Downballot, Kamala Harris carried by a tight 51-49 margin. This seat, based in the eastern half of the state, was arguably the most politically volatile congressional district in the nation a decade ago, though Democrats are hoping that Pappas' success means that those days are over.
Most of the chatter on the Democratic side has focused on Maura Sullivan, a Marine veteran and former Obama administration official who is a member of the state party's leadership. Sullivan hasn't sought elected office since she lost the 2018 primary to Pappas 42-30, but Politico reports she's considering running again.
The conservative New Hampshire Journal speculated last month that former Portsmouth City Councilor Stefany Shaheen, who is the daughter of retiring Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, could also try. The younger Shaheen has been talked about as a potential candidate for higher office over the last decade but has yet to run.
On the Republican side, former Executive Councilor Russell Prescott told the site last month that he was considering running again following his 54-46 loss to Pappas last year. Two Republicans who lost the primary to Prescott, businessman Chris Bright and Manchester Alderman Joe Kelly Levasseur, have also expressed interest; businesswoman Hollie Noveletsky, who took a close second in the previous primary, did not respond to the New Hampshire Journal's inquiries in March.
NY-22
Former Assemblyman John Salka tells The Post-Standard that he's considering seeking the Republican nomination to take on freshman Democratic Rep. John Mannion, while Onondaga County Legislator Julie Abbott didn't reject waging her own campaign for New York's 22nd District.
Abbott, who said that unnamed people are trying to recruit her, said she was focusing on her bid for reelection this year but was "always open to any conversation about opportunities for higher office."
One person she does not seem to be having these conversations with, however, is Onondaga County GOP chair Joe Bick, who says that Salka is the only would-be candidate he's heard from. Assemblyman John Lemondes, meanwhile, told the Post-Standard that he wouldn't run.
Mannion flipped the Syracuse-area 22nd District last year by unseating GOP Rep. Brandon Williams by a 55-45 margin. According to calculations by The Downballot, relying on data graciously provided by data guru Ben Rosenblatt, Kamala Harris carried the 22nd District by a similar 54-46 spread.
Williams, whom Salka worked for as a congressional aide, later accepted an appointment from Donald Trump for a post in the Department of Energy, though the Senate has yet to confirm him.
PA-01
Bucks County Commissioner Bob Harvie announced Thursday that he'd challenge Republican Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, giving Pennsylvania Democrats a notable candidate for a seat they've tried in vain to flip for over a decade.
Kamala Harris carried the 1st District by a 49.7-49.4 margin, according to calculations by The Downballot, which makes this suburban Philadelphia constituency one of the closest in the country. Those numbers, though, only tell part of the story: Fitzpatrick earned his fifth term last year by defeating Democrat Ashley Ehasz 56-44 in a race that neither national party treated as competitive.
Fitzpatrick's comfortable win made him one of just three House Republicans to represent a seat that voted for Harris (the other two are Nebraska's Don Bacon and New York's Mike Lawler) and allowed him to keep building up his war chest. The congressman announced this week that he finished March with $5 million in the bank to defend himself, while Harvie will be starting his campaign from scratch.
Harvie, however, has experience winning tough races in Bucks County, which is home to 85% of the 1st District's denizens. (The balance is located in Montgomery County.)
He first ran for a seat on the Board of Commissioners six years ago as Democrats aimed to take back the majority they'd lost in 1987. Bucks, like many other counties in Pennsylvania, allows each party to nominate only two candidates for the three countywide seats, and in 2019, no one was sure which party would emerge on the favorable end of the inevitable 2-1 split.
In the end, Democrats finally came out on top. Incumbent Diane Ellis-Marseglia, who was the sole Democratic commissioner, took first with 27%, while Republican state Rep. Gene DiGirolamo secured second with 25%. The battle for that crucial third-place spot ended with Harvie edging out Republican incumbent Robert Loughery 24.2-24.0—a 665-vote margin that decided control of the government in this county of 650,000 people.
Republicans hoped to take back the commission in 2023, but Ellis-Marseglia and Harvie finished first and second, respectively. Those showings meant that Democrats successfully defended their majority for the first time since the Civil War. Harvie now serves as the body's chair.
Bucks County Republicans, though, have had more success maintaining control of their congressional district. While Bill Clinton's 1992 victory in the county marked the start of a Democratic winning streak that would only end with Donald Trump's narrow win last year, Republicans that year flipped the local House seat (then numbered the 8th District) and have held it for most of the ensuing three decades.
The only Democrat to represent Bucks County in the lower chamber during this long stretch was Patrick Murphy, who scored a tight 2006 victory over Republican incumbent Mike Fitzpatrick, the late brother of the current congressman. While Murphy was reelected two years later, Fitzpatrick won their 2010 rematch.
Six years later, Fitzpatrick adhered to a self-imposed term limits pledge and did not seek reelection, but his sibling stepped into his shoes as Brian Fitzpatrick decisively beat then-state Rep. Steve Santarsiero.
Subsequent court-ordered redistricting moved Fitzpatrick's constituency—now known as the 1st District—a couple of points to the left, and Democrats hoped that Trump's unpopularity would be enough to give them back this seat in 2018. Fitzpatrick, however, turned back Democrat Scott Wallace just 51-49 after an expensive contest, though he easily won his next three races.
Harvie is the first major Democrat to test whether Fitzpatrick can withstand another Trump backlash, and he's hoping to deter any primary foes from getting in. The Democrat begins the race with endorsements from every local state legislator including Santarsiero, who's now a state senator and also chairs the Bucks County Democrats. Also in his corner are two other past Fitzpatrick foes—Wallace and Ehasz—as well as Ellis-Marseglia and Murphy.
TX-28
Navy veteran Jay Furman said Thursday that he would seek a rematch against Rep. Henry Cuellar, a conservative Democrat who beat him 53-47 last year.
But while Furman came closer than any other Republican to unseating the veteran congressman, his underfunded effort didn't leave many party leaders wanting him back. Politico reported in February that national Republicans are trying to recruit Webb County Judge Tano Tijerina, a former Democrat who's confirmed that he's interested.
Texas' 28th District, which includes Laredo and San Antonio's eastern suburbs, was safely Democratic turf a decade ago, but Donald Trump's strength in the heavily Latino Rio Grande Valley has dramatically upended local politics. Trump, according to calculations by The Downballot, carried Cuellar's constituency 53-46 last year. Cuellar remains under indictment for federal corruption charges, with a trial set for late September.
Mayors & County Leaders
New York, NY Mayor
New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced on Thursday that he would seek reelection as an independent rather than run as a Democrat, the same day that signatures were due from candidates seeking to appear on the June primary ballot.
The switch, however, likely only delays the inevitable. Polls had shown Adams faring very poorly in the primary, while a survey late last month from Emerson College testing the mayor as an independent in the general election looked little better. In that poll, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, the frontrunner for the Democratic nod, led Republican Curtis Sliwa 43-13, with Adams taking just 11%.
To run in November, Adams must still collect at least 3,750 signatures—the same as major-party candidates—but now he has until May 27 to do so. Despite reports that he had been operating with "a skeleton campaign crew," Adams claimed in a launch video that more than 25,000 voters had signed his petitions to make the primary ballot. However, he'll have to start over again with fresh petitions for his independent bid.
DEMOCRATS ANNOUNCE "PEOPLE’s CABINET"
"We’re launching the People’s Cabinet — a group of leaders, experts, and everyday Americans who will cut through Trump’s lies and speak directly to the people. Stay tuned for more."
– Ken Martin, Chair of the DNC
https://bsky.app/profile/kenmartin.bsky.social/post/3llykndhbck2q
And here are more details and names from the DNC!
https://democrats.org/news/dnc-chair-ken-martin-launches-peoples-cabinet-to-fiercely-counter-trump-administration-chaos-and-lies/
NC appellate court has ruled 2-1 along partisan lines that some 65,000 ballots should not count in the vote tally. It gave some of those voters about 15 business days to provide their missing information.
All of these votes were cast by voters who did all that they were required to do. Now, long after the election, this court is tossing thousand of them out. A very bad day for democracy. https://abc11.com/post/jefferson-griffin-allison-riggs-north-carolina-judges-rule-ballots-tossed-republican-candidate-supreme-court-race/16127804/
Riggs is expected to appeal to the highly partisan state supreme court and to take the case to federal court should they lose in state court and Griffin takes the tally lead.