Rep. Chris Pappas is leaving this seat to run for Senate. Stefany Shaheen and Anthony DiLorenzo want it. Here is where each of them stands.
The 1st District covers the Seacoast, Manchester, the Lakes Region, and the eastern part of the state. Because Chris Pappas gave it up to run for Senate, it is open, and open seats are where control of the US House usually gets decided.
The candidates
ANTHONY DILORENZO, Republican, is from Portsmouth. He is a real estate developer and the owner of Key Auto Group, which runs 21 car dealerships and 12 collision centers across nine states. He graduated from the University of New Hampshire. This is his first run for any office.
STEFANY SHAHEEN, Democrat, is also from Portsmouth. She served on the Portsmouth City Council and chaired the city’s police commission from 2019 to 2024. She co-founded and runs Good Measures, a healthcare company, and she is an author. She is the daughter of retiring Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D).
Housing and the cost of living
Both put affordability first, but don’t remotely agree on the cause of affordability issues impacting the country.
ANTHONY DILORENZO starts with the federal budget. He argues overspending is what drives prices up: “Deficit spending is detrimental to pricing, and it causes inflation.” He wants the national debt reduced and higher-paying jobs brought into the state, and he presents his business record as the qualification for judging what employers need.
STEFANY SHAHEEN starts with federal housing finance. Her husband, Craig Welch, runs the Portsmouth housing authority and oversaw the first permanently affordable workforce housing project built in Portsmouth in 50 years, which she cites as the model: federal tax credits and financing tools aimed at affordable units rather than luxury ones.
She also wants to use surplus public buildings and land for housing, strengthen the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit, expand help for first-time buyers, and fully stop corporate investors from buying up homes.
Healthcare
ANTHONY DILORENZO argues the healthcare system lacks price competition. “The Affordable Care Act is not, in practice, affordable,” he told The Dartmouth, arguing it removed transparency and competition. He points to an MRI that cost $6,000 at one facility and under $800 at another as the problem in miniature.
STEFANY SHAHEEN supports Medicare for All. On her campaign site she writes: “I’m with Bernie Sanders and support Medicare for All.” She also says a public option should stay on the table and that families cannot wait years for a full overhaul of the healthcare system, so she is pushing steps that lower costs now. She says that doctors, not insurance companies or drug companies, should be making medical decisions.
ICE
Immigration is the sharpest split in the race, and it is one of the highest-profile issues in the district.
ANTHONY DILORENZO supports ICE and the agency should enforce current immigration law. His platform calls for securing both the southern and northern borders against illegal crossings, drug smuggling, and human trafficking. He has argued the underlying problem is what he describes as four years of non-enforcement under the Biden administration. He did not speak out against the proposed ICE detention facility in Merrimack.
STEFANY SHAHEEN wants the agency torn down and rebuilt. She chaired the Portsmouth Police Commission, and that is the standard she compares ICE against. She argues ICE agents “have not been well-trained” and has raised concerns about agents carrying military-style weapons in New Hampshire communities. Her view is that an ICE presence does not make communites safer.
Specifically, she wants body cameras on agents, a ban on raids at churches, hospitals, and schools, an end to ICE detention warehouses in the state, and for agents to be held to the same standards New Hampshire expects of its own police departments.
She has described residents of this district living in fear of deportation. As an example, Shaheen cited a couple who are American citizens, born here, who carry their passports because they worry about being challenged for speaking Spanish in public.
The Merrimack facility
The federal government spent much of this year planning to convert a 324,000-square-foot warehouse on a 43-acre site in Merrimack into a processing center holding 400 to 600 people for roughly three to seven days before transferring them to larger detention centers.
Shaheen helped organize the opposition. She told the Granite Post the anger at public meetings was palpable and that people were outraged. Gov. Kelly Ayotte (R) met with then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem about the concerns, and on Feb. 24 announced the project would not move forward.
Trump’s tariffs
The Supreme Court struck down some of Trump’s tariffs in a 6-3 ruling, after the administration had already collected billions. The fight now is over who gets that money—estimated to be up to $175 billion—back.
ANTHONY DILORENZO owns an auto dealership group, so tariffs hit his industry directly. He does not treat that as a reason to oppose them. Asked whether tariffs help American workers more than they hurt household budgets, he said it is not one or the other. According to DiLorenzo, tariffs can raise revenue, push manufacturing back to the United States, and open foreign markets to American goods.
STEFANY SHAHEEN has made tariff refunds a centerpiece of her campaign. Her argument is that large companies including Revlon, Costco, FedEx, and others are already in court demanding refunds, and that small businesses need an automatic process rather than a legal department.
She has also tied tariffs to tourism, New Hampshire’s second-largest industry by revenue, which supports about 70,000 jobs. Canadian travel to the state was estimated to be down 30%year over year.
Where the race stands
Cook Political Report rates the race “Likely Democratic.”
Its partisan makeup is rated by Cook as D+2, meaning it leans just slightly Democratic. That is close enough that both national parties are expected to spend here, and the seat has changed hands repeatedly over the past two decades.
How to vote
The general election is Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026. You can check your registration and find your polling place through the Secretary of State’s office at app.sos.nh.gov.
