Sitting senators almost never pick sides in contested primaries in their own state. Hassan just did, with the Democratic race for New Hampshire’s open US House seat deadlocked and 12 days left.
US Sen. Maggie Hassan endorsed Stefany Shaheen in the Democratic primary for New Hampshire’s 1st Congressional District on Wednesday, stepping into a contested intra-party race in her home state in a way sitting senators almost never do, and doing it with less than two weeks left in a race that polling shows is effectively tied.
Members of Congress typically keep their distance from primaries inside their own delegation, since whoever wins the nomination in September, and potentially the seat in November, could serve alongside them in Washington for years.
Hassan is also set to become New Hampshire’s senior senator in January, when Sen. Jeanne Shaheen—Stefany Shaheen’s mother—retires, which makes her decision to pick a side in the race that will reshape that delegation all the more striking.
The race has set off a nine-person Democratic primary that has narrowed into a two-way fight. On one side is Stefany Shaheen, a former Portsmouth city councilor who entered the race in May 2025 and has centered her campaign on healthcare and pushback on the Trump administration.
On the other is Maura Sullivan, a Marine Corps veteran and former Obama administration official who raised more than $400,000 in her campaign’s first week and has built her bid around a plan to root out corruption in Washington.
An August Saint Anselm College poll put Sullivan at 26% and Shaheen at 24%, a lead which was within the poll’s margin of error, after months in which Shaheen led the public polling.
Sullivan has outraised Shaheen $3.3 million to $2.2 million. The contest turned openly combative this month when Shaheen launched the primary’s first negative television ad, accusing Sullivan of benefiting from hundreds of thousands of dollars bundled by donors to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a charge Sullivan’s campaign has rejected.
Hassan’s backing adds the biggest New Hampshire name yet to an endorsement list Shaheen’s campaign has been stacking all summer, including the Professional Fire Fighters of New Hampshire, the State Employees’ Association/Service Employees International Union Local 1984, the National Education Association-New Hampshire, the American Federation of Teachers-New Hampshire, the League of Conservation Voters Action Fund, the gun safety group GIFFORDS PAC, Teamsters Local 633, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 490, former Gov. John Lynch, every Democratic mayor in the district, and more than 65 New Hampshire health care leaders.
For Hassan, the ties to the elder Shaheen’s political operation run deep. Her career in public life began in 1999, when then-Gov. Jeanne Shaheen appointed her to a state advisory committee on education funding. The two went on to become the first and second women in the nation to serve as both governor and US senator.
