For Stefany Shaheen, the final straw came when Donald Trump appointed Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a vaccine and science denier, as secretary of Health and Human Services.
“That was a bridge too far for me,” Shaheen, the daughter of retiring Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D), told the Granite Post about her decision to leap into the race as the Democratic nominee for New Hampshire’s 1st Congressional District.
The mother of four, former Portsmouth City Council member, and relentless advocate for chronic disease research, knew that if she wanted to oust Kennedy and fight for healthcare access and fact-based medicine in the Granite State, she needed to run. Following Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas’ decision to run for the US Senate seat left open by her mother’s retirement, Shaheen saw her opportunity.
“The first role of government is to protect citizens—the health and safety of the American people,” Shaheen said. “And when we have someone at the helm of the agency most responsible for the health of the American people who doesn’t believe in science, doesn’t believe in vaccines, and doesn’t believe in medical research, I thought, ‘I have to fight against this!’”
Shaheen won the Democratic primary on Sept. 8 and will face Republican candidate Anthony DiLorenzo. A major Trump supporter, DiLorenzo owns a private island and donated $5,800 to Karoline Leavitt during her 2022 Congressional run against Pappas, who defeated her. Leavitt later became White House press secretary, leaving the position in August.
For Shaheen, the fight for healthcare is personal
Shaheen knows firsthand how critical medical research advancement and healthcare access are. She recounts how her grandfather almost died from polio, a highly infectious disease now preventable with vaccination, and had to wear leg braces for the rest of his life. But it was her oldest daughter, Elle, who propelled Shaheen into the battle to improve healthcare.
Shaheen recounts that Elle was only 8 years old when she came within just a few hours of falling into a deadly ketoacidosis coma.
Shaheen had noticed that her daughter had been drinking and urinating more than usual for a few weeks, but when she had an accident one day during a Thanksgiving weekend, she knew something was seriously wrong.
“We rushed her to the doctor, but unfortunately her regular pediatrician wasn’t available. She was treated by somebody else who was very condescending when I insisted that Elle’s urine be tested,” she told the Granite Post. “My brother-in-law had been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in his 20s, so I had an inkling that maybe this was it.”
The doctor, she said, reluctantly agreed.
Within minutes of testing the sample, the doctor had the family’s regular pediatrician on the phone to confirm that little Elle absolutely had Type 1 diabetes. Shaheen was instructed to drive straight to Boston Children’s Hospital, an hour away, where Elle was immediately rushed into treatment. The ER doctor told Shaheen that if her daughter had not been diagnosed that day, she would not have survived.
Elle, now 26, is a healthy aspiring actress, but she said she still has to fight every year to get her insulin prescription approved by her health insurer.
“On our journey, we’ve seen just how broken the healthcare system is,” said Shaheen, who has since become deeply involved in fundraising for the Breakthrough T1D, formerly known as the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.
That broken system is further complicated for Granite Staters. As many as 29,000 Granite Staters could lose Medicaid coverage under new federal work requirements and eligibility rules. At the same time, premiums for many New Hampshire residents who have Affordable Care Act (ACA) health insurance plans skyrocketed after the Trump administration refused to continue ACA subsidies.
The Kaiser Family Foundation estimated that health insurance premiums will soar by 22% on average for Granite Staters this year, after healthcare funding cuts by the Republicans.
“It’s outrageous,” Shaheen said. And on top of those cuts, she said she fears Granite Staters will believe lies about vaccines from Kennedy.
“People are dying because of the misinformation he’s perpetuating and the cuts he’s made to clinical trials for Alzheimer’s and cancer,” she said.
Making life affordable by taxing the ultra-wealthy
Beyond healthcare, Shaheen argues that the current administration is making everyday life unsustainable for the middle class.
“We have higher costs for healthcare, higher costs for energy prices, including gas and oil. We have higher costs for groceries,” she said. “People can’t get ahead, but we have the resources to do this. We’re not taxing billionaires.”
Shaheen pointed to massive corporations like Palantir that manage to avoid paying federal corporate income taxes entirely. “It’s outrageous that teachers, on a percentage basis, pay more in taxes than billionaires,” she said.
She also cited research from the RAND Corporation estimating that tens of trillions of dollars in economic gains have shifted from average Americans to the privileged few since the late 1970s. “Since Ronald Reagan, the largest redistribution of wealth […] has gone from the bottom 90% of Americans to the top 1%. We can solve that problem,” she said
One area where she hopes to apply those resources is housing. Shaheen advocates for expanding tax credit programs to make it easier for developers to build affordable housing—a process she knows firsthand through her husband, Craig Welch, who is the executive director of the Portsmouth Housing Authority.
“It’s a matter of what we are choosing to prioritize. This administration has made clear that the health and well-being of the American people is not their priority.”
Shaheen on rolling back tariffs to save Main Street
Shaheen has also taken direct aim at the Trump administration’s tariffs, calling on the government to reimburse impacted business owners.
“Ninety percent of New Hampshire business is small business. So when you disrupt Main Street with these tariffs, it impacts communities across the state,” she said. She cited local fence companies unable to source affordable raw materials from Canada and local Bedford coffee roasters unable to import Brazilian coffee beans.
The hospitality industry has been hit especially hard by the deterioration in trade relations with Canada. Shaheen pointed to Motorcycle Week, a massive international event in Laconia. “The biggest difference between last year and this year? One hundred thousand fewer people because the Canadians didn’t come.
“This was a crisis that was self-inflicted, highly predictable, and preventable,” she continued. “I will fight for congressional oversight and to prevent these tariffs from continuing.”
Where does Shaheen stand on the Iran war?
Shaheen has been vocal about her opposition to Trump’s foreign policy, especially the war in Iran.
“President Trump promised he would end forever wars. Instead, he launched a dangerous war in a volatile region, putting American lives needlessly at risk,” she said in a Feb. 28 statement demanding an immediate congressional vote on whether to authorize the conflict. “He owes the American people and Congress a clear and thorough explanation of the plan, the costs and the exit strategy. America can not be consumed by another endless, deadly conflict.”
What are Shaheen’s stances on reproductive rights?
Shaheen views the loss of reproductive rights as a critical failure of the current government.
“What’s so disheartening for me is the idea that my daughters have fewer rights to their own bodily autonomy than I did when I was their age,” said Shaheen, who plans to fight for national reproductive freedom legislation.
“It strikes at the very heart of ‘Live Free or Die,’ right? This is about people having the right to choose what happens in their lives and with their bodies. Women have the right to healthcare. Reproductive healthcare is healthcare. I’ve had four babies and I’ve had two miscarriages. When you’re pregnant, when you’re trying to decide if you want to have a baby, you don’t separate reproductive healthcare from the rest of your healthcare.”
Her campaign is a family affair
Shaheen knows how grueling campaigns can be. She was a high school sophomore knocking on doors when her mother first ran for the state Senate, and she worked on her mother’s gubernatorial campaign full time as a college senior.
When it came time for her own congressional run, she made the decision with her husband and four kids. Her youngest son had just graduated high school last May, making her an empty-nester for the first time in 26 years.
“My husband jokes that that’s part of the strategy, to just never be home, because I don’t like an empty nest at all!”
Jokes aside, her family is fully on board. They’re “absolutely, 100% supportive. They want me in the fight,” she said. In fact, two of her girls helped her campaign, and all three of them have been lending a hand to help her with social media. “They know TikTok better than I ever could,” she said.
Shaheen will take all the support from her family that she can get as she runs for Congress. “I knew what I was getting into, I knew how hard it was,” she said.
