MANCHESTER, N.H. — Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas and Republican former Sen. John Sununu will face off for an open U.S. Senate race in New Hampshire at last, after both comfortably defeated primary opponents on Tuesday. 

The November matchup, expected to be one of the most competitive midterm contests in the nation, puts two political heavyweights on one stage. 

Sununu, a scion of perhaps the most prominent political family in New Hampshire, has been both a senator and congressman. His brother and father were also governors. 

Pappas has a long record, too. The son of well-known restaurant owners in Manchester, the 46-year-old has served in Congress for seven years. His quest for the Democratic nomination as a moderate led both establishment and progressive wings of the party to close ranks behind him, with former Vice President Kamala Harris and Sen. Elizabeth Warren both lending their support. 

Both Sununu and Pappas left the primary lightly challenged. Sununu, using the endorsement of President Trump, outmaneuvered Scott Brown, a former Massachusetts senator long seen as a moderate New England Republican before entering Trump's orbit. 

Pappas, running on a platform focused on affordability and a new generation of leadership, managed to fend off Democratic socialist Karishma Manzur, a medical scientist whose late rise in the polls caused backroom worry among establishment Democrats. 

Ultimately, unlike the support other progressives received in primaries — from Abdul El- Sayed in Michigan to Graham Platner, then Troy Jackson, in Maine — Manzur was unable to find the same backing. Brown was similarly at a loss for the broad support among Republicans that he had received in the Senate primary in Massachusetts in 2009 and again in New Hampshire in 2014. 

The result of this contest in November could prove pivotal in determining control of the Senate. The seat, currently held by Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, who is retiring, is rated as “Lean D” by the Cook Political Report. However, a Republican flip could dash hopes of Democratic control of the chamber.