Former New Hampshire Sen. John E. Sununu will run for his old seat in 2026, sparking a comeback attempt nearly two decades after the Republican left elected office.
“Maybe you’re surprised to hear that I’m running for the Senate again. I’m a bit surprised myself,” Sununu said in a video announcing his bid to succeed retiring Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen. “Somebody has to step up and lower the temperature. Somebody has to get things done.”
Sununu acknowledged that politics have changed since he was last on the ballot in 2008, when he lost a bid for a second term to Shaheen.
“Washington’s never been perfect. It’s not meant to be,” he said. “But when I was there, people with different opinions would get together, work things out and come to solutions that made a real difference. But now Congress just seems loud, dysfunctional — even angry.”
National Republicans see New Hampshire’s open seat as a top pickup opportunity as they seek to grow their current three-seat majority in next year’s midterm elections. Kamala Harris carried the state by 3 points last year, a drop from Joe Biden’s 7-point win four years earlier.
However, Democrats, who have largely coalesced around Rep. Chris Pappas in the open Senate race, hold both of the state’s Senate seats, and Republicans haven’t won a Senate election in the state since 2010.
Inside Elections with Nathan L. Gonzales on Wednesday updated its race rating for the Senate race in New Hampshire to Tilt Democratic.
Sununu joins a GOP primary field that includes another candidate seeking a Senate comeback: former Massachusetts Sen. Scott P. Brown, who narrowly lost a bid for the seat to Shaheen in 2014. Republican state Sen. Dan Innis suspended his campaign last month and endorsed Sununu, while urging Brown to also get out of the race.
But Brown, who raised $969,000 in the third quarter of this year and entered October with $803,000 on hand, has indicated he doesn’t plan to leave the race.
“I always enjoy a good primary. I think it’s important. It’s part of the New Hampshire way,” he told WMUR last month. “Since when do we just vote for a name? We have the Bushes, the Clintons, the Shaheens, the Sununus – it’s not a monarchy.”
In Sununu, Republicans get a well-known candidate in a state where his family has a long political legacy. His brother, former Gov. Chris Sununu, who retired last year after eight years in office, was recruited to run for Shaheen’s seat but opted against it. Their father, John H. Sununu, was New Hampshire governor from 1983 to 1989, when he became chief of staff to President George H.W. Bush.
South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, the chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said on social media that the group was “all-in” for the former New Hampshire senator.
That’s important support for Sununu, who will need to convince Republican primary voters to back him despite his past vocal opposition to the president. He wrote an op-ed in the New Hampshire Union Leader in 2024 that was headlined “Donald Trump is a loser.” That same year, he backed former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley in the Republican presidential primaries, and he also advised former Ohio Gov. John Kasich’s 2016 campaign for the White House.
Key party figures, though, see Sununu as their best hope of flipping the Senate seat. Alex Latcham, the executive director of the GOP super PAC Senate Leadership Fund, said his candidacy “instantly expands the Senate map and puts the Granite State in play for Republicans.”
Sununu on Wednesday rolled out a slate of endorsements from influential New Hampshire Republicans, including former Sen. Judd Gregg, who also served as governor and congressman; former Gov. Craig Benson; state Senate President Sharon Carson; and former state party chair and Trump campaign senior adviser Stephen Stepanek. Three members of the state’s elected Executive Council, Joe Kenney, John Stephen and Janet Stevens, also endorsed him.
New Hampshire Democrats are poised to attack Sununu for his work on corporate boards after leaving Congress.
“While John Sununu was cashing in and making millions selling out to corporations and working for special interests, Chris Pappas was delivering for New Hampshire,” Rachel Petri, Pappas’ campaign manager, said in a Wednesday statement. “Chris fought Big Pharma to lower prescription drug prices, led efforts to improve care for our veterans, and continued fighting to lower costs for working families, seniors, and small businesses.”
Pappas, who faces a nominal primary challenger, is coming off a strong fundraising quarter, hauling in $1.8 million between July and September, and had $2.6 million banked on Sept. 30. He’s currently in his fourth term representing New Hampshire’s 1st District — a seat Sununu held for three terms before his election to the Senate in 2002, defeating Shaheen by 4 points.
Sununu, now 61, was the youngest member of the Senate during his lone term, having been first elected at age 38. He mostly voted along party lines, though occasionally bucked GOP leadership. He was among a group of senators in 2006 who supported revisions to the practice of earmark spending for home-state projects. In 2003, he joined a small group of conservatives in opposition to a Medicare prescription drug plan, known as Medicare Part D, fearing its costs would escalate over time.
A mechanical engineer by training, Sununu served on the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee and carved out a specialty in telecommunications. He also served on the Senate Finance and Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs panels.
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