LEBANON — On a brisk March morning a small group, still wearing down jackets and winter hats, gathered in the parking lot of Lucky’s Coffee Garage in Lebanon to listen to U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas talk about why he is considering a run for the U.S. Senate in the wake of Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen’s announcement this month that she will not seek a fourth term in 2026.

Pappas, a 44-year-old Democrat who hails from Manchester and has represented New Hampshire’s First Congressional District since 2019, has set out on a listening tour of the state that he calls “Grounded in Granite.”

He is “figuring out what’s best for the state,” Pappas said in an interview with the Valley News. “I want to see how I can match my skills up with the needs in the moment that we’re living in.”

Shaheen, 78, leaves a formidable legacy. She was the first woman elected governor of New Hampshire. The top-ranking woman on the Armed Services committee, Shaheen is also a ranking member of the Foreign Relations committee.

In her taped video message on March 15, Shaheen said that one of the reasons she had decided to step aside was that it is “important for New Hampshire and the country to have a new generation of leadership.”

Her declaration has already set off a critical contest for Democrats hoping not to lose any more ground in the Senate, and for Republicans hoping to add to their 53-47 majority. In a state once considered the bedrock of New England conservatism, but which now swings from red to blue and back again, the prospect of an open Senate seat is attracting prominent potential candidates.

Apart from Pappas, other names floated include former four-term Republican Gov. Chris Sununu, 50; and former one-term Republican senator from Massachusetts Scott Brown, 65, who moved to New Hampshire in 2013, according to Politico.

Congresswoman Maggie Goodlander, a Democrat who was elected in 2024 to represent New Hampshire’s Second District, said in an interview with the Valley News that she is mulling over whether to run. “People have reached out to me and encouraged me to look at it,” she said.

Like Pappas, Goodlander, 38, was in Lebanon on Thursday. She toured the Dartmouth Regional Technology Center, Twin Pines Housing and Hypertherm.

“Everywhere I go, I hear the word ‘uncertainty,’ ” Goodlander said. “It’s a moment when Social Security has been called a Ponzi scheme. It’s the uncertainty and real fear about decisions being made in the White House.”

Goodlander led a lengthy Town Hall meeting in Concord this week which made it clear to her that “people have not tuned out, they’re engaged.” They respond, she added, to the stories of citizens who are afraid they may lose their Medicaid or Social Security benefits.

Similarly, Pappas, the first openly gay man to represent New Hampshire in Congress, said that since President Trump was inaugurated on Jan. 20, his office has received more calls and communications than he has seen since taking office in 2019.

“Public sentiment is essential. I think the feedback we get is constructive,” he said.

Constituents are concerned about the potential dismantling or alteration of Social Security, Medicaid, veterans’ benefits, the loss of personal freedoms, the scarcity of affordable housing and the cost of prescription drugs as well as the state of public education, Pappas said.

And in a state that borders Canada, with significant French-Canadian and Franco-American heritage and population, Trump’s tariffs on Canada are puzzling to some. “People just don’t understand it. It makes no economic sense,” Pappas said.

Whether the U.S. and Canada need to address the issues of fentanyl and other drugs coming across the border from Canada, or continuing to modernize the trade agreement, which was done during the first Trump administration, it should be accomplished through negotiations, Pappas said.

“You don’t try to divide us in the way that he’s doing it,” Pappas added.

What is clear, Pappas said, is that the “electorate has been very unsettled for some time and I think people look at both parties and think that they aren’t necessarily grounded in what’s important to people’s day-to-day lives.”

During Goodlander’s tour of the Dartmouth Regional Technology Center, she met with representatives from companies with offices there, including staff from Celdara Medical, a biomedical company that works on cancer therapies, autoimmune diseases, ALS and hanta diseases. Celdara relies on federal grants to further research.

Given the Trump administration’s slashing federal funding for what are perceived unnecessary expenditures, “everything is in flux,” said Zach Parker, a Caldera employee. “We have multiple grants going and we don’t know what’s going to happen.”

The unknown unknowns are what brought out Etna resident Jay Campion to Lucky’s to hear out Pappas.

“It’s like lockdown in Covid: life is unclear. We don’t know where it’s going.” But, he added, Pappas “will potentially be a good candidate for the Senate seat. He’s proven his mettle.”

Nicola Smith can be reached at mail@nicolasmith.org.

CORRECTIONS: U.S. Congresswoman Maggie Goodlander,    D-N.H., visited Celdara Medical, a biomedical company, during a tour of Dartmouth Regional Technology Center in Lebanon last Thursday. Zach Parker is an employee of Celdara. A previous version of this story was incorrect in the name of the company and provided an incorrect last name for Parker. Republican Chris Sununu served four terms as New Hampshire's governor. A previous version of this story was incorrect in the number of terms Sununu served.