Stefany Shaheen, the eldest daughter of retiring Senator Jeanne Shaheen, launched her campaign Wednesday for New Hampshire’s First Congressional District, setting up a contested Democratic primary ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
Shaheen, 51, a business leader and former Portsmouth City Council member, said in a campaign launch video that she is outraged by President Trump and his allies moving to slash federal funding for medical research and health insurance. She recounted the story of helping her daughter manage her Type 1 diabetes.
“There’s no one who fights harder than a mom for her kids,” she said, “and that’s how I’ll fight for your family, too.”
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Shaheen co-founded Good Measures, a business that supports people with chronic conditions. She’s also chief strategy officer for Advanced Regenerative Manufacturing Institute (ARMI), which is working to make Manchester a hub for biomanufacturing.
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Shaheen is up against Maura Sullivan, 45, a military veteran and former Obama administration official, who launched a congressional campaign in April after four-term Democratic incumbent Representative Chris Pappas, 44, announced he will run for Senate in 2026 rather than seek re-election to the House.
Pappas went public with his decision after Senator Shaheen, 78, announced her retirement. His candidacy has been endorsed by both Shaheens.
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With the state primary still more than 15 months away, it’s not yet clear which Republicans will enter these races.
New Hampshire’s First Congressional District, which has historically flipped back and forth between the parties in recent decades, is viewed as one of New England’s few battleground districts. Democrats are also eager to hang onto both the Senate seat, which Shaheen has held since 2009.
Stefany Shaheen has notable ties to the Democratic establishment, not only via her mother but also her father, William H. Shaheen, who has served as a leader in the Democratic Party.
What’s more, when she released a book in August 2015 about her daughter’s health struggles, Stefany Shaheen included a prominent blurb from then-presidential-candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton. And when President Biden visited New Hampshire in March 2024, she joined her father in greeting him on the tarmac in Manchester.
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President Biden meets with William Shaheen and Stefany Shaheen after arriving at the airport in Manchester, N.H., in March 2024.Jessica Rinaldi/Globe Staff
Maureen O’Toole, a regional press secretary for the National Republican Congressional Committee, released a statement Wednesday slamming the newly announced candidate as a beneficiary of nepotism who will align with her party.
“Nepo baby Stefany Shaheen is a DC elitist who is committed to the Democrats’ radical agenda that makes life more expensive and less safe,” O’Toole said. “Granite Staters will resoundingly reject her and her out of touch policies.”
Steven Porter can be reached at steven.porter@globe.com. Follow him @reporterporter.
As the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran overtakes the foreign policy debate in Washington, two Democratic governors with potential 2028 presidential aspirations — Gavin Newsom and Andy Beshear — recently traveled to New Hampshire, introducing themselves to the state’s famously engaged voters. The two weighed in on the war and both criticized and questioned President Trump’s strategy and endgame.
“If a president is going to take a country into war, and risk the lives of American troops and Americans in the region, he has to have a real justification and not one that seems to change every five to 10 hours,” Beshear told CBS News after a Democratic fundraiser in Keene.
“This President seems to use force before ever trying diplomacy, and he has a duty to sell it to the American people and to address Congress with it,” Beshear continued. “He hasn’t done any of that. In fact, it appears there isn’t even a plan for what success looks like. He’s gone from regime change to strategic objectives and now is talking about unconditional surrender, which isn’t realistic where he is.”
Beshear also said he thought that Congress should have reined in Mr. Trump’s war powers.
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“He is trying to ignore Congress. He’s trying to even ignore the American people,” Beshear said.
He went on to note that the president’s State of the Union address took place “three — four days before he launched this attack,” and Mr. Trump “didn’t even have the respect to tell the American people the threat that he thought Iran posed to us.”
Last week, both the House and the Senate failed to pass resolutions to limit Mr. Trump’s war powers and stop him from taking further military action against Iran without congressional support.
Democratic Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear speaks with voters in Keene, New Hampshire, on March 7, 2026.
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Anne Bryson
For Newsom, the war with Iran constitutes part of a broader criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
At an event last Tuesday in Los Angeles, Newsom had compared Israel to an “apartheid state.” Later, in New Hampshire, he sought to clarify his comment.
“I was specifically referring to a Tom Friedman [New York Times] column last week, where Tom used that word of apartheid as it relates to the direction Bibi is going, particularly on the annexation of the West Bank,” Newsom explained during a book tour event Thursday night in Portsmouth. “I’m very angry, with what he is doing and why he’s doing it, what he’s going to ultimately try to do to the Supreme Court there, what he’s trying to do to save his own political career.”
Friedman wrote that at the same time that the U.S. and Israel are prosecuting a war in Iran, within Israel, Netanyahu’s government has undertaken efforts to annex the West Bank, driving Palestinians from their homes; fire the attorney general who is leading the prosecution against Netanyahu for corruption; and block the government’s attempt to establish a commission to examine the failures that led up to the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre of Jews by Hamas.
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CBS News has reached out to the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., for comment.
On Iran, Newsom said, “I’m very angry about this war, with all due respect, you know, not because I’m angry the supreme leader is dead. Quite the contrary. I’m not naive about the last 37 years of his reign. Forty-seven years since ’79 — the revolution,” Newsom said. “But I’m also mindful that you have a president who still is inarticulate and incapable of giving us the rationale of why? Why now? What’s the endgame?”
California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks with political commentator Jack Cocchiarella at an event in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on March 5, 2026.
Anne Bryson
Many attendees at Newsom’s book event said that the situation in Iran is a top-of-mind issue for them, too. Some said they’re “horrified” by what is happening.
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29-year-old Alicia Marr told CBS News she decided to attend Newsom’s event because of his social media response to the war with Iran.
“There was one spot left, and I decided to pick it up, and it was due to his response to the war, that it is just unacceptable, and I would agree with that,” Marr said.
While some voters like Marr are eager to hear about where potential candidates stand on foreign policy, many at Newsom’s event said they care most about how potential candidates plan to address domestic issues.
“I’m more focused on getting the middle class back on track and fighting the oligarchy, and I’m less invested in international issues,” said Anita Alden, who also attended Newsom’s event,
“I wouldn’t call myself America first, but we have so many problems at home that are my priority,” she told CBS News.
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Former Vice President Kamala Harris, who may also be weighing another White House bid, told Fox 2 Detroit last week that she “unequivocally opposes” the Trump administration’s military action in Iran and urged Congress to take action.
“If we want to stop Donald Trump with this random decision that he has arrived at, then Congress must act, and Congress must act immediately. The American people do not want our sons and daughters to go into this unauthorized war of choice,” Harris said.
Mr. Trump has lashed out against Democrats who have pushed back on his Iran strategy, calling them “losers” last week and arguing that they would criticize any decision he made on Iran.
“If I did it, it’s no good. If I didn’t do it, they would have said the opposite, that you should have done this,” the president said.
Police say the Attleboro man was driving 104 mph in a 55 mph zone on Route 202 near in Rindge, New Hampshire.
A Massachusetts man was arrested late Wednesday night after police say he was driving more than 100 mph on a New Hampshire roadway.
Officers with the Rindge Police Department stopped a vehicle shortly after 11 p.m. on Route 202 near Sears Drive in Rindge following a report of a car traveling at excessive speed, according to a statement from Chief Rachel Malynowski.
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The vehicle, a 2020 Kia Stinger, was spotted traveling at 104 mph in a posted 55 mph zone, Malynowski said.
The driver, a 21-year-old man from Attleboro, was arrested and charged with reckless operation of a motor vehicle, according to police.
He is scheduled to be arraigned April 5. If convicted, the man faces a fine of at least $750, in addition to the court’s penalty assessment, and a 90-day license suspension, Malynowski said.
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