Sanders-Linked Super PAC Boosts Beriont In 1st Congressional District Primary

By Michael Graham, NH Journal

A new political action committee created by a top Bernie Sanders 2020 operative is backing Hampton Democrat Carleigh Beriont in the hotly contested NH-01 Democratic primary.

Live Free PAC, a federal super PAC registered in June, is one of several political committees created by former Sanders 2020 campaign budget director Peter Sarasohn to support progressive candidates across the country, including controversial Michigan Democrat Abdul El-Sayed.

In a 24-hour notice filed Friday, Live Free PAC reported a $10,000 independent expenditure supporting Beriont. The money went to Washington, D.C.-based Democratic media firm Adwell for digital advertising.

The outside spending comes as Beriont is a new Saint Anselm College Survey Center poll shows her support has shot up from 3 percent in June to 12 percent today.

The August survey found Beriont still trailing Maura Sullivan at 26 percent and Stefany Shaheen at 24 percent, but she is the only other candidate polling in double digits. Another 27 percent were undecided.

And in another bit of good news for her campaign, Beriont just received the endorsement of the Progressive Democrats of America.

“Our endorsement standards are exacting, and Carleigh Beriont stands out in terms of commitment to our progressive priorities,” PDA said in a fundraising appeal.

Also competing for voters in the primary’s progressive lane are Sarah Chadzynski, state Rep. Heath Howard, and Christian Urrutia. Beriont credits old-fashioned organizing with helping her move ahead of them.

Beriont says the “secret sauce” behind her campaign is “showing up everywhere, listening, and organizing. We’ve made 6,000 phone calls, knocked 5,500 doors, hand-written 35,000 postcards to our neighbors in every single town in the district, and recruited 1,200 volunteers.”

Beriont, a Harvard lecturer and Hampton Select Board chair, does not use social media as part of her campaign and has rejected corporate PAC money. Independent expenditures, however, cannot legally be coordinated with or controlled by her campaign.

Asked about Live Free PAC’s involvement in the race, Beriont said the group’s ads “reflect my values, vision, and the policies I support.”

Sarasohn was briefly affiliated with another high-profile New England campaign this summer. He was originally listed as treasurer for Troy Jackson’s U.S. Senate campaign in Maine. Jackson, a Sanders-backed progressive, became the Democratic replacement nominee after Graham Platner was forced out of the race over allegations of sexual abuse.

But Sarasohn was abruptly replaced as Jackson’s treasurer after reporters asked questions about his simultaneous role with a super PAC supporting El-Sayed.

El-Sayed has emerged as a lightning rod in the 2026 election cycle. Like Beriont — and most of the rest of the NH-01 Democratic field — El-Sayed has denounced the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and condemned candidates who accept contributions from AIPAC supporters.

However, Sarasohn’s Fight For Michigan PAC, which was created to support El-Sayed’s candidacy, accepted $175,000 from the Council for American-Islamic Relations, the Washington Free Beacon reports.

The Department of Justice named CAIR an unindicted co-conspirator in a 2008 investigation into fundraising on behalf of the Hamas terrorist organization. And the Biden administration removed CAIR from work on the administration’s national Islamophobia strategy after co-founder and executive director Nihad Awad celebrated Hamas’ Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel.

In the NH-01 primary, Beriont remains at a substantial financial disadvantage. According to FEC records through June 30, she had raised $506,418 and had about $77,000 available. By comparison, Sullivan had raised $3.33 million, Shaheen $2.21 million, and Urrutia $1.04 million. All three are airing television ads in the campaign’s final weeks.

This story was originally published by the NH Journal, an online news publication dedicated to providing fair, unbiased reporting on, and analysis of, political news of interest to New Hampshire. For more stories from the NH Journal, visit NHJournal.com.