In U.S. Senate bid, Karishma Manzur vows to fight corruption
Union Leader | By Kevin Landrigan
Karishma Manzur, a Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, said her platform includes governmet run- Medicare for All health coverage, universal child care and raising the federal minimum wage.
Declaring her opponents in both parties corrupt and financed by moneyed interests, Exeter scientist and liberal activist Karishma Manzur said her Democratic bid for the U.S. Senate offers voters a “people-powered” campaign.
“We’re going to beat a very corrupt Democrat named Chris Pappas, because who better to beat a corrupt Democrat than an anti-corruption candidate?” Manzur, 55, said after officially filing at Secretary of State David Scanlan’s office Friday afternoon with her husband, Alex Koch, and a few dozen supporters.
When asked what makes the four-term congressman Pappas corrupt, Manzur pointed first to his 2025 vote for the Laken Riley Act that required the Department of Homeland Security to detain without bond noncitizens unlawfully in the U.S. who get arrested for violent crimes ranging from burglary and rape to assaulting a law enforcement officer.
That is what has empowered ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) to terrorize our communities. ... They are not detention centers. Let’s call them for what they are, concentration camps, and that has got to stop,” Manzur said.
She also said Pappas’s decision to take $2.7 million from AIPAC and other pro-Israel lobbies over his career was indefensible.
“Why is a sitting member of Congress who is supposed to be representing us taking money from a foreign lobby?” Manzur asked. “And what does that foreign lobbying group want? Unconditional weapons transfers to Israel using our taxpayer dollars. There is not enough money for our education, for our infrastructure, for our citizens and yet billions of dollars are spent to bomb children, bomb families, destroy Lebanon, destroy Gaza. It’s got to stop.”
Manzur also criticized Pappas for allowing local police to arrest five peace activists for protesting inside his Dover district office in May 2024.
Manzur on the issues
Manzur’s platform includes Medicare for All, universal child care, raising the federal minimum wage and spending more on affordable housing.
“Our housing, health care, and child care crises are not inevitable,” Manzur said. “They are the result of political choices. If elected, I will fight for policies that put people before profits and ensure every family has the opportunity to thrive.”
Manzur said she’s attracted more than 2,000 small donors to her campaign to raise $151,000 compared with Pappas, who had raised just under $10 million by the end of March.
“Ours is a people-powered campaign. You have to ask yourself: Where are those big dollars coming from and what has he (Pappas) promised to get them?” Manzur said.
The Pappas campaign declined to comment.
If elected, Manzur said she would be the first non-white Muslim immigrant to serve in the U.S. Senate and only the second to hold a doctorate degree in science.
Born in Bangladesh, Manzur immigrated to the U.S. as a teenager.
Several liberal groups have endorsed Manzur, including New Hampshire Peace Action, 350NH, Southern NH Indivisible, Peace Action, Citizens Against AIPAC Corruption, Progressive Victory, and Courage for Democracy.
Pappas is expected to file his candidacy next week to try to replace retiring U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen.
Former U.S. Sens. John E. Sununu and Scott Brown are battling it out in the Republican primary for the seat.
A few dozens supporters turned out last Friday to pack the office of Secretary of State David Scanlan while their candidate, Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate Karishma Manzur, officially signed up to run.
