John E. Sununu Jumps into Senate Race, Setting up GOP Primary With Scott Brown

Former U.S. Sen. John E. Sununu is now officially running to reclaim the same Senate seat he first held more than two decades ago.

Sununu, who first indicated he was considering a Senate bid more than a month ago, formally launched his campaign with a video announcement Wednesday morning.

"Maybe you're surprised to hear that I'm running for the Senate again," Sununu said in the video. "I'm a bit surprised myself. Why would anyone subject themselves to everything going on there right now? Well, somebody has to step up and lower the temperature. Somebody has to get things done."

Sununu, who lives in Rye and is the older brother of former Gov. Chris Sununu and son of former Gov. John H. Sununu, says if elected his focus would be on the economy, jobs, debt and affordability.

Sununu's record in politics — while not recent — is long. He served one term in the Senate, defeating then-Gov. Jeanne Shaheen to win the seat in 2002, before losing their 2008 rematch. Sununu had earlier served three terms in the U.S. House.

While in Washington, Sununu's stances reflected a strain of Republicanism that’s far removed from what the party now looks like under President Donald Trump. In D.C., Sununu was often described as a young person in a hurry — for a period, he was the youngest member of the Senate — and seen as a policy-oriented Republican.

He focused much of his energy on entitlement reform and sponsored multiple bills to create private accounts for Social Security. He was a champion of deregulation of broadband as a member of Congress. In fact, complicated policy was something he gravitated towards: Sen.. John McCain liked to call Sununu the "smartest person in the Senate."

He voted conservative on social issues, including opposition to abortion rights and gay marriage. But he had a pronounced libertarian streak on some issues. He opposed aspects of the surveillance provisions in the Patriot Act, which was adopted after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. He also called for Guantanamo Bay detainees to have some due process rights.

In announcing his candidacy on Wednesday, however, Sununu pitched himself as an independent, consensus-minded problem solver. In his launch video, he mentioned that he “never voted to cut Medicare benefits and never will” — an attempt to blunt the attacks that are already coming from Democrats regarding his past stances on entitlement reform.

Another point Sununu stressed in his announcement is his intention to honor what he pitches as New Hampshire's tradition of politics — basically the ability to debate and maybe disagree without being awful about it.

One thing not referenced in Sununu’s announcement is Trump. The two have a complicated history: Sununu opposed Trump in both the 2016 and 2024 Republican presidential primaries, and once penned an op-ed calling Trump a "loser." How that history plays out will be a question for Sununu in the months to come. In GOP primaries, fealty to Trump tends to be an issue. Sununu and his backers are hoping that the Sununu name will help on that front.

Sununu joins former Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown in the Republican primary. Brown served as U.S. ambassador to New Zealand in the first Trump administration, but he isn’t necessarily Trump’s top pick for this race. Still, expect Brown to work his relationship with Trump as he appeals to GOP voters.

Sununu's entrance into this race is pretty certain to make Brown’s run harder. It will definitely require both candidates — and their financial backers — to spend more money. But Brown has run for office — several times — more recently than Sununu has. How Sununu performs and connects with GOP voters will be his first test.

Congressman Chris Pappas, meanwhile, faces Karishma Manzur of Exeter and Jared Sullivan, a state Rep from Bethlehem, in the Democratic primary.