Sununu announced a 2016 Senate bid to succeed Shaheen in New Hampshire

special: Former Republican Sen. John E. Survey New Hampshire wants his old job back.

And on Wednesday, Sununu took a big first step toward a return to Capitol Hill as he announced his candidacy in the 2026 race against Democratic Sen. Gene Shaheen announced his candidacy to retire in New England’s only swing state.

In a campaign launch video first shared nationally with Fox News Digital, Sununu said that these days “Congress just seems loud, dysfunctional, even angry,” and that he “wants to get back to the Senate to help calm the waters.”

Sununu is a former three-term representative who defeated then-Gov. Shaheen Inn of New Hampshire 2002 Senate Elections. But lost to Senator Shaheen in 2008 match.

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Former New Hampshire Republican Sen. John E. Sununu is interviewed by Fox News Digital on September 15, 2025 in Rye, NH. (Paul Steinhauser/Fox News Digital)

Shaheen declared She won’t seek re-election until next year’s midterms earlier this year, and Republicans are working to flip the seat as they aim not just to defend but to extend their Senate majority.

Now, after nearly two decades in the private sector, Sununu is ready to get back on the Senate campaign trail in New England’s only swing state.

“Maybe you’re surprised that I’m running for the Senate again,” Sununu says to the camera in his video. “I’m a little surprised myself. Why would anyone be subject to what’s going on out there right now. Well, somebody’s got to step up and turn the temperature down. Somebody’s got to get things done.”

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Sununu is a brand name in New Hampshire politics. Former senator’s father, John H. Sununu is a former governor who later served as Chief of Staff in the White House of then-President George HW Bush. And one of his younger brothers is former governor Chris Sununu, who led the Granite State to four two-year terms and won re-election.

But Sununu won’t have a path to the GOP nomination.

Ex-Ambassador and Ex-Sen. Scott BrownJi was elected and served three years in the Senate in neighboring Massachusetts and jumped into the race in late June as the 2014 GOP Senate nominee in New Hampshire, narrowly losing to Shaheen in her first re-election bid.

Former Sen. Scott Brown, who kicked off his Republican Senate campaign in New Hampshire in June, is interviewed by Fox News Digital, July 4, 2025, in Exeter, NH. (Paul Steinhauser/Fox News)

“Our campaign will have the resources needed for the long haul, and will allow us to campaign the way I know how: hard work and focused on the gritty politics that Granite State voters expect,” Brown said after Fox News reported that he had raised roughly $1.2 million in the past three months.

Brown has repeatedly targeted Sununu in the past month for the former Senate president’s lack of previous support. Donald TrumpWho have enormous influence over the GOP.

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Sununu served as the national co-chair of the 2016 Republican presidential campaign for then-Governor John Kasich of Ohio, who declined to endorse Trump as the party’s nominee.

And Sununu, along with then-Gov. Chris Sununu, endorsed former ambassador and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley in the 2024 New Hampshire Republican presidential primary, as she battled Trump for the nomination.

And on the eve of the nation’s first presidential primary, the former senator penned an op-ed titled “Donald Trump is a Loser,” which ran in the New Hampshire Union Leader, the state’s largest daily newspaper.

Brown endorsed Trump before his 2016 New Hampshire primary victory, which propelled him to the GOP presidential nomination and ultimately the White House. Brown later served as US ambassador to New Zealand during Trump’s first term.

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, DN.H., is seen speaking at a policy event on October 22, 2024 in Concord, New Hampshire, saying she will not seek re-election next year. (Steven Sene/AP Photo)

“Anyone who thinks that Trump, a corporate lobbyist who hasn’t won an election in a quarter century, is living in a different world with today’s GOP primary voters. When John was supporting John Kasich in 2016, I was campaigning with Donald Trump,” Brown charged in a statement to Fox News.

And pointing to Sununu’s past decade and a half in the private sector, Brown argued that “I was serving in the first Trump administration while John was fighting for special interests. While John is pushing for the DC establishment this summer, I’m working with grassroots activists across the Granite State. Senate seats are earned, not given away.”

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Trump, whose support in the Republican primaries has been extremely influential, has remained neutral to date.

But the President may be willing to overlook Sunanu’s past.

Earlier this year, when Chris Sununu flirted with a Senate bid after leaving office, Trump urged him to run.

The younger Sununu, Haley’s top supporter and surrogate in New Hampshire, repeatedly criticized Trump during the 2024 Republican presidential primary.

Former ambassador and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, center, with then-New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, right, visit a polling station to welcome voters to the polls in the state’s first-ever national presidential primary election, Jan. 23, 2024, in New Hampton, New Hampshire. (Joe Riddle/Getty Images)

Trump told reporters in April that he had met with the former governor in the Oval Office and that he would “support him fully.”

“He’s been great to me over the last year,” Trump added. “I hope he runs. I think he’ll win that seat.”

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And a national Republican strategist familiar with the Senate race in New Hampshire told Fox News Digital last month that “President Trump appreciates the winners and understands that John E. Sununu put this race on the map for Republicans.”

According to Fox News, Sunanu met last month with Senate Majority Leader John Thune and former Sen. Cory Gardner, who serves as chairman of the Senate Leadership Fund, the top super PAC supporting Senate Republicans. National Republicans see Sunanu as the strongest candidate to win back the seat in New Hampshire.

New Hampshire Democratic Senate candidate Rep. Chris Pappas interviewed by Fox News Digital on July 4, 2025 in Portsmouth, NH. (Paul Steinhauser – Fox News)

Four-term Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas, who launched his Senate campaign in early April, is the clear front-runner for his party’s nomination.

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New Hampshire has held the nation’s first presidential primary in more than a century, while next September’s state primary will be one of the nation’s last.

While Republicans have had success in state elections — they control both the governor’s office and chambers of the state legislature — the GOP hasn’t won a Senate election in New Hampshire since 2010.