First out gay U.S. Senator-elect Chris Pappas puts Donald Trump’s judicial nominees on notice

Chris Pappas stood beside his husband on election night and celebrated a breakthrough in American democracy. By Friday, the first out gay man elected to the U.S. Senate was describing how he intended to defend it.

In an interview with The Advocate, the New Hampshire Democrat said he would use his vote on President Donald Trump’s judicial nominees to protect LGBTQ+ rights, including the freedom to marry.

“I need to know that they respect the precedent that has been set in Obergefell and other decisions that have ensured a right to privacy and ensured that individuals have the freedom to be themselves and make their own decisions,” Pappas said.

Pappas defeated Republican former Sen. John E. Sununu to succeed retiring Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, preserving a Democratic seat as his party won control of Congress. His election gives gay men their first openly held seat in a chamber with the power to confirm the judges who decide how far constitutional protections reach.

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A marriage at the center of a milestone

The significance was beginning to register, Pappas said, through conversations with LGBTQ+ people who understood the victory as something larger than one candidate’s achievement.

“And this is so much bigger than me,” he said. “This is about how we have a government that reflects the diversity of this country, but also the desire for change, the desire to make progress again, the desire to confront the damage of the Trump administration.”

Beside him Tuesday was Vann Bentley, whom he married in 2023. Their election night appearance placed an ordinary expression of love at the center of an extraordinary political moment.

“I’m not sure I would’ve made it through this process were it not for him,” Pappas said Friday.

Both were exhausted. Both understood that their family would occupy a new place in the institution he was joining.

“There hasn’t been a couple in the U.S. Senate that’s looked like us before, and I think we’re mindful of that,” he said.

Related: Chris Pappas makes history as the first out gay man elected to the U.S. Senate

What voters rejected — and what they expect

Pappas saw a broader lesson in Tuesday’s results for politicians who have made LGBTQ+ people campaign targets.

“I think this election showed that there are very diminishing returns to the cynical attacks on the LGBTQ community,” he said.

He argued that economic concerns largely drove both the 2024 election and this one. He said that people struggling to afford groceries, gas, and health insurance wanted leaders who understood those pressures and would address them.

Republicans’ losses extended well beyond New Hampshire. As The Advocate reported, the GOP spent tens of millions on anti-transgender television advertising in Texas but lost both the governorship and a Senate seat. LGBTQ+ candidates helped build Democrats’ congressional majority, with JD Ford in Indiana and JoAnna Mendoza in Arizona defeating Republican incumbents.

Yet the election also exposed the limits of that progress. Voters approved anti-transgender ballot measures even as Democrats celebrated their national gains.

Pappas said Democrats must now lower costs, fight healthcare cuts, unwind Trump’s tariffs and restore congressional oversight.

“We have to provide meaningful oversight of the administration and root out corruption where we see it and work every day to make life better for folks across this country who are struggling,” he said.

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Sununu turns his criticism toward Trump

The Republican Pappas defeated was also drawing conclusions about the president.

HuffPost reporter Jennifer Bendery wrote on X on Friday that Sununu, speaking on SiriusXM’s The John Kasich Show, blamed Trump for Republicans’ poor showing and criticized his failure to confront institutional corruption.

“Now it seems like he or his family is in on every transaction and deal that goes on in Washington,” Sununu said, according to Bendery.

She also reported that Sununu said the results complicated potential 2028 presidential bids by JD Vance, Marco Rubio and Doug Burgum.

“The closer you are to the president, the worse a night it was for you as a potential presidential candidate,” Sununu said, according to her posts.

Pappas said he would seek Republican partners, including Trump, when possible. But he made clear that the Senate’s power over judicial nominations was a responsibility Democrats must exercise.

In a 2025 interview with The Advocate, he warned against dismissing threats to marriage equality.

“We have to be using that power to protect the progress that we’ve made in this country to protect freedom,” he said Friday.

‘We’re not done making progress yet’

Asked what his younger self would make of this moment, Pappas described a future he once could not imagine.

“I’m living a life today that I didn’t think was possible when I was growing up just a couple decades ago,” he said.

For LGBTQ+ young people watching, he wanted his election to show that change remained possible, and to give them a reason to insist on more.

“My message is that we’re not done making progress yet,” Pappas said. “We have to make sure that everyone has the same rights and responsibilities, that everyone is treated equally before the law, that everyone has the same opportunity to build their life and to reach their dreams.”