With state primary day a little more than a month away, the candidates in New Hampshire’s Democratic U.S. Senate race are stepping up their campaign activity across the state.
Karishma Manzur is in the midst of a 10-day van tour of every New Hampshire county. Kicking it off, Manzur told supporters to reject the big money campaigns run by other candidates on both sides of the aisle.
"This seat belongs to the people of New Hampshire, and the people of New Hampshire have to fight to keep it, because otherwise the billionaires are going to buy this seat,” Manzur said.
Manzur, who’s never run for elected office before, is campaigning on a platform to limit the role of money in elections. That includes a pledge to support the banning of super PACs.
Congressman Chris Pappas, the other major candidate in the Democratic Senate primary, is making Social Security a central issue in his campaign.
In Manchester Monday, Pappas was endorsed by the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare and promised to fight any effort to reduce benefits.
“There is no room in budgets for seniors to see any sort of benefit cut, and we have to work to protect the program in a way to allow seniors to retire with dignity and to make sure those at the very top of the income spectrum are paying their fair share,” Pappas said.
The leading Republican in the race, former U.S. Sen. John E. Sununu, proposed partially privatizing Social Security when he last served in Washington, though he has not emphasized Social Security reform this Senate run.
Social Security is projected to become insolvent in 2032, when beneficiaries could lose nearly a quarter of their benefits.
Pappas provided little detail on what actions he would take, but said he would back creating a commission to address the program's solvency.
