UNH Survey Center: Early Look At 2026 NH Races

By Andrew E. Smith, Ph.D., UNH Survey Center, InDepth NH

DURHAM, NH — Former Senator John E. Sununu leads 2014 GOP nominee Scott Brown for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in 2026, both of whom trail Congressman Chris Pappas for the general election.

Granite Staters are divided on whether Governor Kelly Ayotte deserves another term in office but very few have an opinion on two prospective Democratic candidates for governor. In New Hampshire's First Congressional District, most likely Republican voters are undecided on whom they will support, while Democratic primary voters show a preference for Stefany Shaheen, though more than half remain undecided.

In the Second District, incumbent Democratic Congresswoman Maggie Goodlander leads in a possible rematch of the 2024 race with Republican Lily Tang Williams.

These findings are based on the latest Granite State Poll, conducted by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center. Granite State Panel members were sent an invitation to complete the survey and 1,361 completed the survey online between September 17 and September 23.

The margin of sampling error for the survey is +/- 2.7 percent. Included in the sample were 1,235 likely general election voters (margin of sampling error +/- 2.8 percent), 568 of whom reside in NH's 1st Congressional District (MOE +/- 4.1 percent) and 508 reside in NH's 2nd Congressional District (MOE +/- 4.3 percent). Also included in the sample were 508 likely 2026 Democratic state primary voters (MOE +/- 4.3 percent) and 555 likely Republican state primary voters (MOE +/- 4.2 percent). For complete press release and detailed tabular results, please click: Early Look at 2026 NH Races 9/29/2025

This article first appeared on InDepthNH.org and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.