Congressman Chris Pappas Announced He Is Engaged to Boyfriend

Chris Pappas, a Democrat from New Hampshire, has announced that he has gotten engaged to his boyfriend.

"We said yes!" the Congressman wrote to Twitter. "Vann and I are thrilled to share the news of our engagement and look forward to a lifetime of happiness and togetherness." The politician became a history maker in 2018 when he was elected as the first out gay person to win federal office in New Hampshire history, and recently announced that he was running for a third term.

Representative Pappas's boyfriend made headlines during the 2020 re-election campaign. Republican nominee Matt Mowers called Pappas out in a live debate, revealing that Vann Bentley had served as a lobbyist which should have been disclosed. Bentley had been a lobbyist for Amazon until November 2019 and it is unclear whether the two were dating at the time and Pappas said that he consulted with the House Ethics Committee and was told he didn't have to register the relationship.

The Victory Fund later called Mowers' words a homophobic dog-whistle that sought to bring attention to Pappas's sexuality more than anything. Pappas called it "gutter politics."

Bentley is reportedly a policy manager for the World Wide Web Foundation currently.

As Pappas prepares to run for re-election, the republican field has seen six names already announce. Mowers is among them.