John E. Sununu jumps into New Hampshire Senate race

Republicans have recruited a Sununu to run for Senate in New Hampshire in spite of everything.

Former Sen. John E. Sununu stated Wednesday that he’s operating to reclaim the seat he held for a single time period earlier than Democrat Jeanne Shaheen ousted him in 2008. Shaheen is retiring subsequent 12 months.

“Maybe you’re surprised to hear that I’m running for the Senate again. I’m a bit surprised myself. Why would anyone subject themselves to everything going on there right now?” Sununu stated in a launch video posted on-line Wednesday morning. “Well, somebody has to step up and lower the temperature. Somebody has to get things done.”

The scion of a outstanding GOP political dynasty, Sununu, 61, seemingly provides Republicans their finest likelihood of flipping the seat after his brother, former Gov. Chris Sununu, rejected the occasion’s recruitment efforts for an additional cycle.

John E. Sununu brings entry to his household’s fundraising machine and boasts shut relationships with members of Senate GOP management, together with Majority Chief John Thune. Nationwide and state Republicans take into account him a robust candidate. Early polls put him forward within the GOP main and present him as essentially the most aggressive Republican in opposition to the Democratic front-runner, Rep. Chris Pappas.

Sununu has been in talks with the White Home about his marketing campaign and can quickly meet with President Donald Trump about it, POLITICO first reported. Trump’s endorsement could be essential within the GOP main, though the state’s broader citizens thrice rejected him for president.

However Sununu’s path to securing Trump’s nod — and the GOP nomination — will not be clear.

Sununu has lengthy opposed Trump, serving as a nationwide co-chair of former Ohio Gov. John Kasich’s 2016 presidential marketing campaign and backing former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley for president in 2024. He penned an op-ed lambasting Trump as a “loser” forward of New Hampshire’s presidential main final 12 months (Trump went on to win by 11 factors). He later derided Trump’s 2020 election conspiracies as “completely inappropriate” by his place with the Democracy Protection Venture, a bipartisan group targeted on restoring public belief in election safety.

And Sununu faces one other former senator, Scott Brown, who represented Massachusetts earlier than transferring to New Hampshire and mounting an unsuccessful bid to unseat Shaheen in 2014. Brown was the president’s first-term ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa and is now searching for his personal political comeback by positioning himself because the extra Trump-aligned candidate within the race. One other GOP candidate, state Sen. Dan Innis, has already dropped his bid and backed Sununu. He’s referred to as on Brown to do the identical, however the former ambassador is battling on.

“Anyone who thinks that a never Trump, corporate lobbyist who hasn’t won an election in a quarter century will resonate with today’s GOP primary voters is living in a different universe,” Brown stated in a press release.

Sununu, who can be the son of former Gov. and White Home chief of employees John H. Sununu, served three phrases within the Home earlier than defeating then-Gov. Shaheen to win his Senate seat in 2002.

He begins with a polling benefit within the GOP main. A College of New Hampshire survey from late September had him main Brown 42 p.c to 19 p.c, with 28 p.c undecided.

Early surveys additionally present him inside putting distance of Pappas. The Democrat leads Sununu 49 p.c to 43 p.c within the UNH ballot’s hypothetical general-election matchup; Pappas leads Brown by a wider margin of 52 p.c to 37 p.c. A survey from GOP-aligned co/environment friendly had Pappas main Sununu by 3 proportion factors and Brown by 10 factors.

Sununu started publicly exploring a bid in September, after conversations with Thune and former Colorado Sen. Cory Gardner, then the chair of the GOP tremendous PAC Senate Management Fund. Amongst these concerned in his newest marketing campaign is Paul Collins, a longtime adviser to the Sununu household.

Sununu may face challenges in his tried comeback. Whereas his household’s model stays robust in New Hampshire, Sununu largely light from elective politics after his 2008 defeat, ceding the highlight to his youthful brother. His post-congressional work on company boards has drawn him early fireplace from his opponents on either side of the aisle. The state Democratic Get together already has an internet site attacking Sununu for “selling out to corporations.”

And his previous opposition to Trump may show tough to reconcile with the MAGA base, though it may win him help amongst independents who can pull ballots within the GOP main.

Sununu downplayed Trump’s significance within the Senate race in a WMUR interview final month, saying the competition “is going to be about New Hampshire.”

However Brown is working to weaponize Sununu’s repeated rejections of the president, whilst he faces his personal MAGA picture drawback after saying in 2021 that Trump “bears responsibility” for the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

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