The New Hampshire survey finds former Senator John Sununu leading former Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown in the Republican Primary election for U.S. Senate, 48% to 19%, with a third of voters (33%) undecided.
The hypothetical general election between Sununu and Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas is virtually tied: 45% support Democrat Chris Pappas, 44% support John Sununu, 5% support someone else and 6% are undecided. Pappas has an edge over Brown, 48% to 39%, while 6% support someone else and 7% are undecided.
“In a matchup between Pappas and Sununu, women break for Pappas by a nine-point margin, 49% to 40%, while men support Sununu by six points, 48% to 42%,” Kimball noted. “Voters under 40 support Pappas by a 23-point margin, 54% to 31%, along with voters over 70 by a six-point margin, 51% to 45%, while voters in their 50s and 60s break for Sununu by 12 points, 51% to 39%.”
Looking ahead to the 2028 presidential nominating contest, 43% of Republican primary voters support Vice President JD Vance, 18% support Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and 6% support former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley; 20% are undecided.
Democrats are more splintered: 20% support former Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, 12% support Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, 12% California Governor Gavin Newsom, 10% Arizona Senator Mark Kelly, and 8% former Vice President Kamala Harris. Twenty-four percent are undecided.
President Trump holds a 41% job approval among New Hampshire voters and a 55% disapproval rating. Governor Kelly Ayotte holds a 38% job approval rating, while 40% disapprove of the job she is doing.
Senator Maggie Hassan holds a 37% job approval, while 44% disapprove of the job she is doing. Senator Jeanne Shaheen holds a 36% job approval rating, while 46% disapprove of the job Shaheen is doing.
- Independent voters in New Hampshire disapprove of every figure in the state:
- A majority, 59%, disapprove of Trump, while 39% approve
- A plurality of independents disapprove of Ayotte (39%-37%), Hassan (41%-37%), and Shaheen (44%-36%)
New Hampshire Poll Methodology
The Emerson College Polling New Hampshire survey was conducted March 21-23, 2026. The overall sample of New Hampshire likely voters, n=1,000, has a credibility interval, similar to a poll’s margin of error (MOE), of +/- 2.9 percent. The data sets were weighted by gender, education, race, age, party registration, and region based on U.S. Census parameters and voter file data.
It is important to remember that subsets based on demographics, such as gender, age, education, and race/ethnicity, carry with them higher credibility intervals, as the sample size is reduced. Survey results should be understood within the poll’s range of scores, and with a confidence interval of 95% a poll will fall outside the range of scores 1 in 20 times.
Data was collected by contacting a panel of voters provided by Consensus Strategies using MMS text-to-web and email, with additional panel interviews provided by PureSpectrum. Panel responses were matched to the Aristotle voter file using respondents’ full name and ZIP code. The survey was offered in English.
All questions asked in this survey with exact wording and order, along with full results, demographics, and cross tabulations can be found below.
