News: Former Sen. John Sununu (R-N.H.) will announce whether he’s running for Senate in the next two weeks, per multiple people familiar with his thinking. It’s widely expected Sununu will enter the race, but the former senator hasn’t made a final decision.
Republicans have been talking a big game about winning New Hampshire’s open Senate seat. But there’s a brutal looming GOP primary featuring Sununu and former Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.).
The attacks. Democrats have coalesced around Rep. Chris Pappas (D-N.H.). Meanwhile, Brown has spent the past month hammering Sununu for opposing President Donald Trump.
Brown served as Trump’s ambassador to New Zealand during his first term.
“John was the original ‘never Trumper.’ He was going around the state campaigning for John Kasich,” Brown told the Pulse of NH on Sept. 4. While serving as a Kasich surrogate in the 2016 presidential primary, Sununu called Trump “crazy,” “repugnant” and “not presidential,” adding he “just makes things up.”
On Sept. 6, Brown went on Newsmax to remind viewers about Sununu’s January 2024 New Hampshire Union Leader op-ed, titled: “Donald Trump is a loser.” Sununu argued that Trump has “been directly responsible for loss after painful loss” in key elections by backing failing primary candidates.
Earlier in 2024, Sununu also criticized Trump’s reaction to the 2020 election as “completely inappropriate.”
The context. Before Sununu was interested in the race, Senate Republican leadership met with Brown in January and viewed him as a viable choice for the general election.
But we scooped last month that leadership-aligned One Nation circulated a polling memo presenting Sununu as the best-positioned Republican to take on Pappas. Sununu, who hails from New Hampshire political royalty, would enter the race with high name identification.
Brown announced on Tuesday that his campaign, along with a joint fundraising committee, raised $1.2 million in the third quarter. Brown has $900,000 on hand.
We should note that Sununu’s Trump skepticism may prove popular with New Hampshire’s independent voters. And in the 2026 cycle, Trump’s political team has prized winning above all else and may be more willing to overlook past criticism.
