Sununu announces Senate bid to succeed Shaheen in New Hampshire in 2016

EXCLUSIVE: Former Republican Sen. John E. Sununu of New Hampshire wants his old job back.

And on Wednesday, Sununu took a big step toward returning to the Capitol by announcing his candidacy in the 2026 race to succeed outgoing Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen in New England’s only swing state.

Sununu, in a campaign launch video first shared nationally with Fox News Digital, said that today “Congress seems noisy, dysfunctional, even angry” and that he wants to “return to the Senate to help calm the waters.”

Sununu is a former three-term representative who defeated then-Gov. Shaheen in from New Hampshire 2002 senatorial elections. But the senator lost to Shaheen in their rematch in 2008.

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Shaheen announced earlier this year she would not seek re-election in next year’s midterms and Republicans are working to flip the seat in an effort to not only defend but expand their Senate majority.

Now, after nearly two decades in the private sector, Sununu is ready to return to the Senate campaign trail in New England’s only swing state.

“Maybe you’re surprised that I’m running for Senate again,” Sununu says to the camera in his video. “I’m a little surprised myself. Why would anyone submit to everything that’s going on out there right now. Well, someone’s got to step up and lower the temperature. Someone’s got to get things done.”

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Sununu is a brand in New Hampshire politics. The former senator’s father, John H. Sununu, is a former governor who later served as White House chief of staff to President George HW Bush. And one of his younger brothers is former Gov. Chris Sununu, who was elected and re-elected to four two-year terms as leader of the Granite State.

But Sununu won’t have a transition path to the GOP nomination.

Former ambassador and former senator Scott Brown, who was elected and served three years in the Senate in neighboring Massachusetts and who, as the Republican Party’s candidate for the New Hampshire Senate in 2014, narrowly lost to Shaheen in his first re-election, entered the race in late June.

Former Sen. Scott Brown, who launched a Republican Senate campaign in New Hampshire in June, is interviewed by Fox News Digital, July 4, 2025, in Exeter, New Hampshire. (Paul Steinhauser/Fox News)

“Our campaign will have the resources it needs for the long term and allow me to campaign the only way I know how: hard work and a focus on the retail policy that Granite State voters expect,” Brown said after Fox News first reported that he had raised about $1.2 million in fundraising over the past three months.

Brown repeatedly targeted Sununu last month over the former senator’s lack of support for President Donald Trump, who holds immense influence over the Republican Party.

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Sununu served as national co-chairman of the 2016 Republican presidential campaign of then-Ohio Governor John Kasich, who refused to support Trump as the party’s nominee.

And Sununu, with the governor at the time. Chris Sununu, endorsed former ambassador and former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley in New Hampshire’s 2024 Republican presidential primary, as she battled Trump for the nomination.

And on the eve of the nation’s first presidential primary, the former senator wrote an opinion piece titled “Donald Trump is a Loser,” which appeared in the New Hampshire Union Leader, the state’s largest daily newspaper.

Brown supported Trump before his 2016 New Hampshire primary victory, which propelled him to the GOP presidential nomination and ultimately the White House. Brown later served as the United States ambassador to New Zealand during Trump’s first term.

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., seen speaking at a political event in Concord, New Hampshire, October 22, 2024, is not seeking re-election next year. (Steven Senne/AP Photo)

“Anyone who thinks a corporate lobbyist who has never been Trump and who hasn’t won an election in a quarter century will resonate with today’s GOP primary voters is living in a different universe. While John was supporting John Kasich in 2016, I was campaigning with Donald Trump,” Brown charged in a statement to Fox News.

And reflecting on Sununu’s last fifteen years in the private sector, Brown argued that “while John was fighting for special interests, I was serving in the first Trump administration. While John courted the Washington establishment this summer, I worked with grassroots activists across the Granite State. Seats in the Senate are earned, not passed on. »

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Trump, whose support in the Republican primaries is extremely influential, has remained neutral so far.

But the president might want to ignore Sununu’s past moves.

Earlier this year, when Chris Sununu flirted with a Senate run after leaving office, Trump urged him to run.

The younger Sununu, who was Haley’s main supporter and surrogate in New Hampshire, criticized Trump repeatedly during the 2024 Republican presidential primaries.

Former Ambassador and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, center, is joined by then-New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu, right, as they visit a polling location to greet voters casting ballots in the state’s first presidential primary, January 23, 2024, in Hampton, New Hampshire. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Trump told reporters in April that he met with the former governor in the Oval Office and would “fully support him.”

“He’s been very nice to me over the last year,” Trump added. “I hope he runs. I think he will win this seat.”

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And a Republican national strategist familiar with the New Hampshire Senate race told Fox News Digital last month: “President Trump likes winners and understands that John E. Sununu is putting this race on the Republican map.” »

As Fox News reported, Sununu met last month with Senate Majority Leader John Thune and former Sen. Cory Gardner, who chaired the Senate Leadership Fund, which is the main super PAC supporting Senate Republicans. National Republicans view Sununu as the strongest candidate to win back the New Hampshire seat.

New Hampshire Democratic Senate candidate Rep. Chris Pappas is interviewed by Fox News Digital, July 4, 2025, in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. (Paul Steinhauser-Fox News)

Democratic Representative Chris Pappas, who launched his Senate campaign in early April, is the clear favorite for his party’s nomination.

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While New Hampshire has held the nation’s first presidential primary in more than a century, its state primary, which will take place next September, is one of the last in the country.

While Republicans have enjoyed success in state elections – they control the governor’s office and both houses of the state legislature – the Republican Party has not won a Senate election in New Hampshire since 2010.