“It’s been a while since you elected me to serve New Hampshire. And boy, have things changed.” — From John E. Sununu’s campaign launch video.
Trivia question: What percentage of New Hampshire’s iPad owners voted for John E. Sununu in 2008, the last time he ran for office?
Zero. The iPad hadn’t been invented yet.
The trick question highlights two fascinating facts confronting former Sen. Sununu as he jumps back into politics: It’s been a long time since he’s run a campaign, and the world of politics is changing faster than ever.
Nearly two decades since his last campaign? Please. Since 2016, we’ve been calculating political time in “Trump years.” Using that calculation, it’s been centuries.
Think about this: On the same day John E. lost his Senate seat to Jeanne Shaheen, the voters of California banned gay marriage in their state by a 52 percent to 48 percent margin. Today, merely casting those votes would be considered a hate crime in Gov. Gavin Newsom’s California.
Even reading the list of issues Sununu worked on in the Senate feels like flipping through a diary from a bygone era: blocking taxes on internet connections (“Hands off my AOL!”), opposing parts of the Patriot Act, and supporting a “semi-private investment accounts” Social Security reform plan to keep the program from going broke.
Can you remember the last time an elected official seriously discussed the difficult politics of keeping Social Security solvent? And were they listening to their Walkman at the time?
The pace of political change — driven by the rise of social media and the collapse of social norms — means that, other than his famous last name, Sununu is starting this race from scratch. And he’s never run on a muddy, messy political track like this one.
Once more into the way-back machine: In the politics of 2008, Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain publicly denounced a conservative radio host for simply using Sen. Barack Obama’s middle name in public. Such an affront crossed the line of political propriety at the time.
In 2025, the sitting president of the United States posts AI videos showing him flying a fighter jet and dropping excrement on a “No Kings” rally.
And try to imagine President Donald Trump saying, “Well, somebody has to step up and lower the temperature. We don’t always agree, but we respect one another and work together for the common good.”
Is there any evidence that Republican primary voters want a lower temperature or more respect for those across the aisle? When Sununu says in his video, “Congress just seems loud, dysfunctional, even angry,” how is that different from the GOP base?
As one veteran Republican put it: “Admirable message. Tough sell.”
It’s not the message Sununu’s primary opponent, Scott Brown, is selling. He’s already got the gloves off.
“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 said in a statement.
Like they said back in the day, “It’s on like Donkey Kong.”
That’s good news for both Brown and Sununu. Both former U.S. senators can benefit from this primary. Sununu needs to hone his message, get in the groove of retail politics, and craft his answers to the steady stream of “What about Trump?” questions he’s going to face for the next year.
Brown needs to raise his standing in the eyes of the GOP establishment and its big-dollar donors. Right now, they don’t believe he has a real shot at beating Chris Pappas. What better way to make his case than to defeat a Sununu in a GOP primary? (The last time a Sununu lost a statewide primary in New Hampshire? John H. Sununu in 1980, to eventual U.S. Sen. Warren Rudman.)
Reading media coverage of John E. Sununu, the word most often used to describe him is “smart.” (“I think he’s the smartest person in the United States Senate,” McCain once said.) That’s another word not often heard to describe American politics at the moment. Could Sununu help it make a comeback?
And then there’s the biggest Sununu throwback of all: The last time Sununu won an election, he was part of an all-GOP federal delegation. George W. Bush had just won the state’s four Electoral College votes two years earlier. Sununu is from an era when, not only did Republicans win congressional races in New Hampshire, they were expected to.
Could John E. Sununu take the New Hampshire GOP back to those glory days?
That may be asking too much. But Republicans are ready to hop in that DeLorean, crank it up to 88 mph, and find out.
