President Donald Trump told reporters on Air Force One Sunday night that he hopes his one-time political foil, former New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, will run for the U.S. Senate in 2026. If he does, Trump said, he will have the president’s full support.
A reporter asked Trump about public comments Sununu has made that if he runs for the seat being vacated by retiring U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), he will win and that Trump would be on board.
“Is that true?” the reporter asked.
“True,” Trump replied.
“I told him — He came to my office, came to the Oval Office, and (I) met with Chris Sununu, and I support him fully. I hope he runs. He’s been very nice to me over the last year or so, but no, I hope he runs. I think he’ll win that seat.”
Trump’s “nice to me” remark was a joke regarding some of Sununu’s tough attacks on him during New Hampshire’s First in the Nation primary last year.
Sununu declined to comment on Trump’s statement late Sunday, but several Republican campaign pros told NHJournal that Trump’s statement was good news for the New Hampshire GOP.
“I hope he runs, too!” said Craig Stevens, a Bedford Republican who worked on the presidential campaigns of George W. Bush and Mitt Romney. “Sununu is smart on policy. He would come to the race — and Washington — with instant credibility.”
Stevens also agrees with Sununu that, if he gets in the race, he’ll win — though Stevents says he “still thinks it’s a longshot” that Sununu runs.
“He’s the best natural politician I’ve ever seen. It’s his to lose if he decides to run.”
Sununu has been a GOP team player and voted for Trump in each of the past three elections. But he’s also been a vocal critic, particularly during the First in the Nation primary last year when he was an aggressive advocate for former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley.
Sununu predicted Haley would defeat Trump in the First in the Nation primary. Trump won the Granite State with about 55 percent of the vote to Haley’s 43 percent.
Then, just days before the South Carolina GOP presidential primary, Sununu said he was doing everything he could to keep Trump from being his party’s nominee, telling Politico’s Governor’s Summit, “A**holes come and go. But America is here to stay.”
And in 2022, he called Trump “f***ing crazy” during a speech to the Gridiron Club in Washington, D.C. (Sununu said afterward it was just a joke.)
Today, that’s all water under the bridge for President Trump with a potential U.S. Senate seat pickup in play, campaign pros say.
“There are a lot of things on the president’s mind these days. One of them doesn’t have to be losing GOP control of the U.S. Senate,” said veteran GOP strategist and longtime Sununu family ally Pat Griffin. “Governor Sununu clears the field of substantive or serious candidates and assures an important Republican pick up in New Hampshire. If Chris Sununu runs, he wins.”
U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas has already announced he’s running for Senate, while first-term Democrat Rep. Maggie Goodlander says she’s considering it. Some progressive Democrats say they’re hopeful a left-of-center candidate who reflects the party’s more progressive base will enter the race, ala Rep. Carol Shea-Porter in 2006. One name that’s often mentioned is former Executive Councilor Andru Volinsky.
On the Republican side, former ambassador and Massachusetts U.S. Sen. Scott Brown has made no secret of his interest in running for the seat. Asked about the president’s comments, Brown told NHJournal:
“President Trump is the leader of the party, and he has earned the right to endorse whoever he supports. There is no path to a Republican nomination running against President Trump-backed candidates.”
Sununu is widely believed to be the strongest candidate in either party, and a recent poll showed him with a nine-point lead over Pappas in a theoretical head-to-head matchup. But, says Stevens, even if Sununu doesn’t run, the GOP has a real shot at winning the seat anyway.
“The good news for Republicans is that even though Sununu is the best statistical match up right now, if we’re able to rally behind our nominee, no matter who it is, there’s a better than even shot Republicans flip the seat,” Stevens said.
