The scion of a prominent GOP political dynasty, Sununu, 61, likely gives Republicans their best chance to flip the seat after his brother, former Gov. Chris Sununu, rejected the party’s recruiting efforts for another cycle.
John E. Sununu provides access to his family’s fundraising machine and maintains close relationships with members of Senate GOP leadership, including Majority Leader John Thune. National and state Republicans view him as a strong candidate. Early polls have him ahead of the GOP primary and show him as the most competitive Republican against the Democratic front-runner, Rep. Chris Pappas.
Sununu is in talks with the White House about his campaign and will soon meet with President Donald Trump about it, POLITICO first reported. Trump’s endorsement would be crucial in the Republican Party primaries, even though the state’s broader electorate has rejected him as president three times.
But the path Sununu took to winning Trump’s endorsement — and the Republican Party’s nomination — is unclear.
Sununu has long opposed Trump, serving as national co-chair of former Ohio Gov. John Kasich’s presidential campaign in 2016 and supporting former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley for president in 2024. He wrote an opinion piece lambasting Trump as a “loser” before New Hampshire’s presidential primary last year (Trump ultimately won by 11 points). He then ridiculed Trump’s 2020 election plots, calling them “completely inappropriate” because of his position with the Democracy Defense Project, a bipartisan group focused on restoring public confidence in election security.
And Sununu faces another former senator, Scott Brown, who represented Massachusetts before moving to New Hampshire and unsuccessfully trying to unseat Shaheen in 2014. Brown served as the president’s first-term ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa and is now seeking his own political comeback by positioning himself as the most Trump-aligned candidate in the race. Another GOP candidate, Sen. Dan Innis, has already dropped his candidacy and backed Sununu. He asked Brown to do the same, but the former ambassador continues to fight.
“Anyone who thinks that a corporate lobbyist who has never been Trump and who hasn’t won an election in a quarter century will resonate with today’s Republican primary voters is living in a different universe,” Brown said in a statement.
Sununu, who is also the son of former governor and White House chief of staff John H. Sununu, served three terms in the House before defeating then-Gov. Shaheen won his Senate seat in 2002.
He pledged in his launch video to focus on the economy and “making our lives more affordable.” He also called for “protecting Medicare” and “really tackling our health care costs” as expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies take center stage in the government shutdown now stretching into a third week. WMUR was first to report on the official launch of its campaign.
Sununu starts with a polling advantage in the GOP primaries. According to a University of New Hampshire poll taken in late September, he led Brown 42 percent to 19 percent, with 28 percent undecided.
Initial investigations also show him within striking distance of Pappas. Democrat leads Sununu 49 percent to 43 percent in hypothetical general election in UNH poll; Pappas leads Brown by a wider margin of 52 percent to 37 percent. A GOP-aligned coefficient survey showed Pappas leading Sununu by 3 percentage points and Brown by 10 points.
Sununu began publicly exploring a bid in September, after conversations with Thune and former Colorado Sen. Cory Gardner, then chairman of the GOP super PAC Senate Leadership Fund. Among those involved in his latest campaign is Paul Collins, a longtime adviser to the Sununu family.
Alex Latcham, executive director of the Senate Leadership Fund, said in a statement that Sununu’s candidacy “instantly expands the Senate map and puts the Granite State in play for Republicans.”
His candidacy also generated instant enthusiasm in the Granite State. A group of prominent New Hampshire GOP donors and business leaders — including Phil Taub, Joe Faro, Al Letizio Jr., Nick Vailas and Kelly Cohen — will host a fundraiser for Sununu in Bedford on Nov. 3, POLITICO first learned.
Still, Sununu could face challenges in his comeback attempt. Although his family’s brand remains strong in New Hampshire, Sununu largely disappeared from elective politics after his defeat in 2008, ceding the spotlight to his younger brother. His post-congress work on corporate boards earned him early criticism from opponents on both sides of the aisle. The state Democratic Party already has a website attacking Sununu for “selling to businesses.” Pappas hammered Sununu for “cashing in…working for special interests” in a statement Wednesday in response to his launch.
And his past opposition to Trump could prove difficult to reconcile with the MAGA base, although it could win him support from independents who can remove ballots in GOP primaries.
Sununu downplayed Trump’s importance in the Senate race in an interview with WMUR last month, saying the contest “will be about New Hampshire.”
But Brown is working to weaponize Sununu’s repeated dismissals of the president, even as he faces his own MAGA image problem after saying in 2021 that Trump “bears responsibility” for the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol.
