Democrats have won the last dozen congressional races in New Hampshire, and party leaders say they're bent on ensuring that trend continues in 2026. But this year, a range of Democratic candidates seeking to represent New Hampshire in Washington are running not just to beat Republicans. They’re also running against the very approach that’s succeeded for their party here for decades: moderate politics carried out by people who have made politics their career.
That dynamic was perhaps nowhere on clearer display than outside the New Hampshire Democratic Party’s annual McIntyre-Shaheen fundraiser last month.
When attendees arrived at the event, Karishma Manzur was hard to miss. The U.S. Senate hopeful and first-time candidate stood at the main entrance, with a large banner proclaiming that she rejects pro-Israel PAC money — and the moral compromises she says that requires.
“I am not allowed to put this sign inside because the keynote speaker, Hillary Clinton, gets money from AIPAC. Chris Pappas gets money from AIPAC. Maggie Goodlander gets money from AIPAC. [Maggie] Hassan, [Jeanne] Shaheen: they all get money from AIPAC,” Manzur said, running through a list of the most successful state Democrats of the past decade. “If we want to reclaim our power, we need to reject these corrupt organizations.”
Manzur, a 52-year-old who holds a Ph. D. in biochemistry and biology. says peace activism got her into politics. And though she’s cast ballots and knocked on doors for top New Hampshire Democrats in the past, she says it’s high time voters recognize that the politics they practice — moderate, incremental, and donor-friendly — isn’t working for New Hampshire anymore.
“We have a housing crisis, a childcare crisis, a healthcare crisis; it’s because the current set of lawmakers, including Pappas, are failing the people,” she said. “They are serving their donors; they are not serving the people.”
'I’m out here with the people'
The irony wasn’t lost on Manzur that she was standing outside a fundraiser where $200 was the price of the cheapest ticket, with some of the party’s top donors walking past as she spoke. Inside, longtime Democratic party chairman Ray Buckley was reveling in the atmosphere.
“This year’s dinner, like every year, is a time to celebrate our successes, and raise money to build for future success,” Buckley said.
But how and where to build most fruitfully is an open question for Democrats these days. To candidates like Manzur — and others whose politics skew to the left of party leaders — the very foundation of the Democratic Party feels rotten and in need of replacement.
“I’m out here, I’m out here with the people, I’m not back there,” said 1st District Congressional candidate Sarah Chadzynski. She was pointing to a section of the hotel ballroom full of party leaders and top donors.
A former middle school teacher and international non-profit director, Chadzynski says economic hardship is one big way she connects with voters.
“People are excited, people are engaged by a candidate who knows what it’s like to live paycheck to paycheck, who knows what it’s like to walk in and apply for food stamps but has broken into the system to actually get something done,” she said.
She’s not the only Democrat running in the 1st District who is convinced voters want something fundamentally different. Carliegh Beriont, who chairs Hampton’s selectboard and lectures at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, believes the political moment demands it.
“We need to be willing to take risks and make big stands and actually show voters that they are not full of crap,” she said.
One of Beriont’s biggest stands is her refusal to use social media, a risky move in an age where politics can begin and end online.
“The amazing thing about not using social media is that I get to hear from all different kinds of people,” Beriont said. “People want to be safe in their homes, they want to afford to live here. They want change.”
Democratic State Rep. Jared Sullivan, who is vying in the U.S. Senate primary, agrees. But he also says without new limits on corporations and the wealthy, even reaching the everyday people Democrats claim to want to serve will remain a challenge.
“People are turned off by politics because of how nasty it is, and it’s easy to say both sides are nasty and check out. I think the only way out of this is to reform the system,” Sullivan said.
A turning of the tide?
The extent to which reform occurs in this year’s elections will depend on a range of factors, but longtime observers of state politics cite the economy, the war in Iran, the retirement of Jeanne Shaheen, and even the rise of Graham Platner in Maine, as reasons to think this election could be a moment when Democrats reckon with their party’s longstanding identity
“I certainly would like to see some different leadership,” said former Democratic state Sen. Jackie Cilley.
Cilley mounted a failed bid for governor as an anti-establishment candidate back in 2012. She sees the growing number of candidates this year willing to call out the powers that be — including in their own party — as welcome.
“They are fighters, and they want to see real systemic and lasting change, and I hope the ones that are on that platform take it forward,” Cilley said.
