Seventeen years after being unseated by Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, former U.S. Sen. John E. Sununu has launched a bid to return to Congress.
Washington, D.C., has changed since he was first elected to federal office in 1996, Sununu said in his Senate campaign announcement. What used to be a place like New Hampshire, where elected officials could work out their differences and find solutions, is no longer.
“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 said. “Well, somebody has to step up and lower the temperature.”
Sununu, who lives in Rye, served three terms in the House of Representatives and one term as a senator. Since exiting the Senate in 2009, he has worked in the tech industry and taught at St. Anselm College.
He has also sat on several nonprofit and company boards, including medical technology company Boston Scientific and his family’s Waterville Valley Ski Resort.
Shaheen plans to retire next year and will leave a competitive Senate seat up for grabs in the 2026 midterm elections. In the Republican primary, Sununu will face Scott Brown, a former U.S. senator from Massachusetts and former ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa during President Donald Trump’s first term.
On the Democrats’ side, Shaheen has endorsed U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas to take her place. Karishma Manzur, a scientist from Exeter, is challenging Pappas in the Democratic primary.
Sununu pledged to lower healthcare costs and protect senior benefits like social security, veterans’ services and Medicare. Healthcare and health insurance were the subject of widespread cuts in Trump’s spending bill that Congress passed this summer.
Sununu didn’t mention Trump in his announcement, instead striking a tone of bipartisanship with a focus on the economy, jobs and affordability. He’s previously opposed Trump, calling him a “loser” in last year’s presidential primary. Brown, meanwhile, has aligned himself as an ally to the president.