Levi Sanders, the son of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) was handily defeated on Tuesday night in his bid for New Hampshire’s 1st Congressional District, a perennial swing district that was vacated by retiring Rep. Carol Shea-Porter (D-NH).
Sanders was viewed as a significant underdog in the race before Tuesday. He also ran without the explicit endorsement of his father, who said in a statement this summer: “Levi has spent his life in public service to low-income and working families, and I am very proud of all that he has done. In our family, however, we do not believe in dynastic politics. Levi is running his own campaign in his own way.”
The younger Sanders had only raised about $40,000 for his congressional bid.
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Chris Pappas, an openly gay member of the New Hampshire Executive Council, won the primary after also beating back Maura Sullivan, an Iraq War veteran and former Obama administration official who raised more money than him and had been criticized for moving to the state last year. When the race was called, Sanders was in seventh place out of eleven candidates.
The 1st District was won twice by former President Obama, by a slight margin in 2012, and then narrowly won by President Trump in 2016. In the last six elections, the House seat has changed party hands five times.
