Each time Mark Nowack and Cynthia Palaro have attended a political event, they’ve noticed Scott Brown stick around.
“Scott, he meets the people. He talks to you,” said Nowack.
When the couple first met Brown, he recalled, the United States Senate candidate personally put his number in Nowack’s phone.
“I called him,” Nowack said. “He got right back to me.”
That’s the difference between Brown and his opponent, John E. Sununu, the Brentwood couple said. Since that first meeting, they’ve started volunteering with campaign signs.
In a Republican primary with little daylight between the two contenders, Brown is seeking to distinguish himself as just that: the candidate who calls back, who will be a “scrapper” and a “fighter.”
“When I give you my word, it’s gold,” he said during a debate on Wednesday.
Sununu, on the other hand, highlighted his measured, practical approach to problem-solving, arguing it’s not enough for a candidate to say they’ll fight for their constituents.
“The skill of knowing not just how to take a stand, how to take a vote — how do you find a way to get it done for the state you care about?” Sununu said.
Both are former U.S. senators vying to return to Washington, D.C., years after their stints in the capital. Sununu, who leads in the polls, touts his work on privacy rights and cutting taxes and regulations. Since losing his seat to Jeanne Shaheen in 2008, he’s worked and served on boards in the private sector.
Brown, who represented Massachusetts in the Senate from 2010 to 2013 and served as an ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa during President Donald Trump’s first term, draws on his military and diplomatic experience.
Both espoused similar views that struck a chord with the sea of people wearing American flag-themed clothing and Make America Great Again hats at the primary debate in Hampton. Both urged Congress to make new laws on birthright citizenship and pass Trump’s proof-of-citizenship election law, also known as the SAVE Act. Both spoke of a need to compete with and guard against China, and both said they oppose letting transgender girls play school sports.
They also rallied the crowd by outlining their aim: to stop Democratic U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas from clinching the open senate seat.
Approaches to Trump
Trump isn’t on the ballot this year, but the president holds a tight grip on GOP politics, leaving Senate hopefuls to thread the needle on how they’ll maintain independence while working with the administration.
Brown jabbed at Sununu’s corporate ties and high-profile endorsements, including from the president. He said he’s the only candidate who can actually be accountable to New Hampshire voters.
“If there’s something that the president wants, respectfully, that affects New Hampshire in a negative manner, I’m the guy that can actually say, ‘No, sir,’ because I didn’t get his endorsement,” Brown said.
Sununu said despite endorsements from powerful fundraisers and conservative organizations hoping to flip the seat red, the most meaningful ones are the grassroots ones from local leaders. He’s not worried about reelection or “currying favor,” he said — just about helping New Hampshire.
Still, he emphasized a need to work with the administration and vowed to be effective in doing so.
“Believe me, when I walk into the Oval Office, when I pick up the phone and make a call to the Secretary of Commerce, they’re going to answer it,” Sununu said.
Both men have criticized Trump in the past and continue to do so.
This week, for example, Sununu said on WMUR that he opposes the $300 billion included in Trump’s deal with Iran that is earmarked to support reconstruction.
“I don’t think the U.S. should provide any money for reconstruction. That’s not where we should be headed,” Sununu said. “There’s no way that we should take responsibility for investing in any Iranian infrastructure.”
Brown, meanwhile, criticized Trump’s actions and attitude toward Canada.
“When the president goes and renegotiates a contract in Canada, I think that’s appropriate. It’s always good to renegotiate a deal,” Brown said. “But when he says that they’re gonna make them the 51st state, not going to connect a bridge to our two countries and humiliate them, I think he’s gone too far.”
Sununu and Brown, who both live in Rye, are the GOP frontrunners ahead of the Sept. 8 primary. Also on the ballot are Tom Alciere of Hudson; Sky Danley of Portsmouth; Andy Martin of Manchester; Mary Maxwell of Concord; Richard McMenamon II of Gilmanton; and Sabrina Smith of Pittsfield.
Pappas and progressive challenger Karishma Manzur of Exeter lead the field of Democrats vying for Shaheen’s seat. David Jarvis of Manchester, Maxwell Saal of Walpole and John Vail of Easton are also running.
