New Hampshire Senate Race Might Just Be Out Of Reach For GOP, Polls Show

Republicans could face an uphill battle to flip an open New Hampshire Senate seat during November’s midterm elections, according to new polling.

A NHJournal/Praecones Analytica poll released Monday found that New Hampshire Rep. Chris Pappas, the expected Democratic nominee, leads both former Republican New Hampshire Sen. John Sununu and former Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown in head-to-head matchups. Sununu, who is mounting a comeback bid with the support of Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Senate Republicans’ campaign arm, performs significantly better than Brown in the survey.

Democratic New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen’s decision to not run for reelection has forced Democrats’ to defend another open seat and buoyed Republicans’ hopes of adding to their 53-seat majority.

Brown — the unsuccessful 2014 GOP nominee for the same seat — trails Pappas by a landslide margin, 28% to 45.8%. More than a quarter of respondents are undecided. Despite entering the contest months prior to Sununu, the former Massachusetts lawmaker has failed to attract support from national Republicans.

Pappas conversely leads Sununu by single digits with 22% unsure. Just over 42% of voters back Pappas while roughly 35% support Sununu.

The survey also found that Democrats have an 11-point advantage (45.2% to 35.6%) on the generic ballot question of which party should control the federal government. The result is a six-point improvement for Democrats from when the pollster asked the question in July. Nearly 20% of respondents in the battleground state were undecided.