Chris Pappas has made history in New Hampshire, winning the state’s US Senate seat to become the first openly gay man ever elected to the chamber. The Democratic congressman beat Republican John E Sununu, a former senator himself, in one of the most closely watched races of this week’s US midterm elections, with the Associated Press calling the result shortly after polls closed on Tuesday night.

Sununu conceded within minutes, telling his supporters it was “not our night” and confirming he had called Pappas to congratulate him. The news was met with cheers at Pappas’s election night party at the Puritan Backroom in Manchester, the restaurant his family has long been connected to and where his grandfather once claimed to have invented the chicken tender.

In his speech to supporters, Pappas thanked his husband, Vann Bentley, saying that whatever the result, he felt like “the luckiest guy” for being married to the man he loves.

Pappas, 46, has represented New Hampshire’s 1st Congressional District since 2018, when he became the first openly gay person the state sent to Congress. He launched his Senate campaign in April 2025, after long-serving senator Jeanne Shaheen announced she would not stand again, leaving the seat open for the first time since 2010.

His win makes him only the third out LGBTQ+ person to be elected to the Senate, following Tammy Baldwin, the first out lesbian senator, and Kyrsten Sinema, the first out bisexual senator. Laphonza Butler, the first Black lesbian to serve in the Senate, was appointed to her seat rather than elected.

Notably, Pappas’s sexuality never became a line of attack during the campaign. Sununu didn’t raise it, something The 19th observed stood out in an election season marked by personal attacks elsewhere.

Pappas will take his seat in the Senate in January.